On Wednesday, the Tamil Nadu government’s daily media briefing on the COVID-19 situation, which had usually been addressed by health secretary Dr Beela Rajesh, had a new face. Rather a very popular face in the state these days.
State Health Minister C. Vijayabhaskar, a doctor himself, popularly known as CVB, came on Wednesday to brief the media. Clad in a crisp white shirt and a dhothi, with the late Jayalalithaa’s photo in the transparent shirt pocket and a dash of ash on his forehead, Vijayabhaskar appeared in style before the media, after a gap of 15 days, since the pandemic cases increased.
Flanked by his department secretary, Beela Rajesh, and Director of Public Health Dr Kulandaisamy, Vijayabhaskar’s briefing was to convey to the people of the state that the Tamil Nadu government was handling the pandemic with much caution.
“Today, only 38 people have tested positive for COVID-19. Do you think Tamil Nadu is slowly coming out of the crisis?” a reporter for a Tamil television channel asked Vijayabhaskar.
When the journalist asked Vijayabhaskar to say whether the coronavirus curve was flattening in Tamil Nadu, the minister may have been smiling behind his face mask. “Yes, we are fighting to contain the spread. We have containment zones marked and so there is no community spread. This is because we are into aggressive testing as per the instructions of our chief minister,” Vijayabhaskar said.
Vijayabhaskar said the testing has gone up from 3,272 tests till April 2 to 21,994 till April 15. But the one important question behind this is whether Tamil Nadu actually has the sufficient number of RT PCR testing kits, which determine the existence of COVID-19 in the patient’s body.
The different numbers given by the state’s chief secretary, health secretary and the health minister to one specific question on the availability of RT PCR testing kits from THE WEEK’s correspondent during the daily media briefings suggest a blatant variance. On April 8, for the first time when this question was put to Beela Rajesh by THE WEEK’s correspondent, she replied, “We already had 14,000 kits when this began. The number of kits had come down during these days. We have sufficient number of kits.”
On April 12 again, when the same question was put to state Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam, he replied, “We have sufficient number of testing kits. We had 14,000 kits already. We have placed orders with Siemens for 20,000 kits, which will reach us soon.”
The very next day again, answering the question on the availability of testing kits, the health secretary said, “We have 24,000 kits.”
The number, however, saw a new high when the health minister addressed the media on Wednesday. He said, “Tamil Nadu government, under the guidance of the chief minister, was much prepared to face the pandemic and orders were placed by Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation as early as January 22 for medical equipment, PPEs for doctors and face masks.” Detailing the money spent towards these purchases he said, on January 22, orders worth Rs.146 crore were placed. Again, a bulk purchase was made for Rs.204.84 crore, he said.
Giving out details on the RT-PCR testing kits he said, “We had placed orders for 1,35,000 kits and we have received 1 lakh kits. We have also received 20,000 kits from ICMR and 40,000 kits from the Tata Group of companies, for which the chief minister himself thanked the Tatas.”
And again when THE WEEK asked him to clarify as to when the order for 1,35,000 kits was placed and from where the kits were procured, the minister was largely evasive. He replied saying, “We had placed the order well in advance as I told you.” When asked from which company the kits were purchased, he said, ‘Siemens’ after taking help from the health secretary.
But here a question emerges on the changing numbers: Whether both the chief secretary and health secretary were not aware of the huge order placed with Siemens or if the minister exaggerated the numbers to say that the government was always prepared to face the pandemic. It is to be mentioned here that the minister made it clear that the government was well prepared since January 22.
Siemens Healthineers launched the test kits for SARS-CoV-2 only on April 2. According to a press release in Siemens Healthineers.com, the company launched the test kit to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, on April 2. It was only then Siemens Healthineers announced the availability of its molecular Fast Track Diagnostics (FTD) SARS-CoV-2 Assay test kit.
On April 3, Siemens Ltd’s MD and CEO in India, Sunil Mathur, said that the company had committed Rs.20 crore towards critical medical care equipment across the country and that it had promised to deliver 40,000 PCR test kits to ICMR. A press release was issued by Siemens Ltd on April 3.
Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation Limited, (TNMSC) is the sole procurement authority to place orders and procure any medical equipment. Apparently TNMSC, which has put out details of the names of the suppliers with whom orders were placed for surgical consumables, does not have any mention of the order placed with Siemens.
