Covid-19: West Bengal scores low

In its quest to show minimal numbers, the state ignored basic health protocols

Given its population, the density of population, its geographical location (sharing international borders with three countries and national borders with five other states), and the high rates of migration, West Bengal should have recognised it is particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). It also had the added advantage of a strong chief minister in Mamata Banerjee, and a ruling party, Trinamool Congress, which is deeply rooted across the state. It thus had the political strength and administrative abilities to be able to track and contain the disease.

Unfortunately, West Bengal has scored poorly in the battle against Covid-19. This stems from a range of factors. It began with extremely low testing. It instituted a system where deaths were audited by a committee, which would, in cases of those with co-morbidities, assign the cause of death to other ailments rather than Covid-19. It also did not rigorously follow protocols on hospital admissions, contact tracing and containment. Eventually, as a central team pointed out this week, the state ended up with one of the highest mortality rates in the country at over 12%. It also, on many days, did not put out data. All of this appears to have stemmed from the desire of the West Bengal government to show success, where success was defined as a low number of cases.

This was a mistake, because pretending that the problem does not exist will not make the problem go away. It is only by taking it on aggressively that the chances of the spread of the disease get minimised. To be fair, the state government has made certain corrections. It has now adopted the Indian Council of Medical Research protocol to record fatalities, scrapped the committee to audit deaths, begun publicly putting out the number of cumulative cases, and instituted stronger isolation measures. It should learn from its mistakes and emulate best practices from now on.