The West Bengal Department of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday alleged that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been sending a large number of defective testing kits to the state.

In a thread of tweets, the state health department said the faulty kits are forcing officials to opt for multiple Covid-19 tests of patients.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also holds the portfolio of Health Minister, hence, this becomes even more important with her department tweeting such serious allegations.

Meanwhile, a major row has erupted in West Bengal, with many in the medical fraternity and opposition parties claiming the state is reporting fewer cases as only a minuscule proportion of the population is getting tested for the inscrutable enemy.

Till Saturday, the state had reported 233 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including 12 deaths, far lower than other big states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The constitution of an expert audit committee to certify whether the deaths have occured due to coronavirus or other underlying ailments, called comorbidity in medical parlance, instead by the doctors who treated them, has led to growing scepticism about the reliability of the state government data.

The National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), ICMR's nodal Covid-19 testing facility in Kolkata, had recently said the state government is not sending enough samples for tests.

"There is a big drop. Last week we didnt even have 20 samples per day. Number of samples being sent is determined by the state government, so if they send more samples, we are able to test more. I think sample collection has not been as per the recommendation. So the number of tests being done in Bengal is also less," its director Dr Shanta Dutta had said recently.

Responding to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's complaint about the paucity of testing kits, she said ICMR has dispatched 42,500 kits to NICED so far and that there is no shortage.

According to the state's chief secretary Rajiva Sinha, a total of 4,630 samples have been tested by Saturday and West Bengal is now conducting over 400 tests every day.

As of April 11, worst-hit Maharashtra had tested 31,841 samples, Rajasthan 24,817, Kerala 14,163 and Delhi 11,709.

The number of Covid-19 positive cases given out by the state and the Centre are also at variance with each other.

The West Bengal government said on Saturday that the number of those afflicted stood at 233, while the Union ministry of health and family welfare website put it at 287.

The state currently has eight ICMR certified labs including NICED and the state-run SSKM hospital where COVID tests can be conducted.

Opposition parties have accused the TMC government of not doing enough to stem the rise of coronavirus cases and hiding facts.

(With inputs from PTI)