Contending that the Centre and the state government are working in tandem to contain the spread of Covid-19, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar on Wednesday appealed to everyone to keep aside political differences and put up a united fight against the pandemic.
Dhankar said that Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has apprised him about the adequacy of COVID-19 testing laboratories and kits in West Bengal and hailed the central government for being "even-handed in such matters."
The governor also said that Vardhan, in his letter, told him that four laboratories are currently functional in the state -- two in Kolkata, one in Midnapore and the other in Siliguri, North Bengal -- and around 2,500 testing kits have been made available.
Apart from these four, the ICMR has given its permission to set up a Covid-19 laboratory at the School of Tropical Medicine in Kolkata, he said.
"But the requisite reagents for conducting the tests could not be shipped yet due to difficulty in transportation of the same as a result of lockdown," the governor said, referring to the letter by the Union minister.
Asserting that the West Bengal government and the Centre were putting in joint efforts to combat the pandemic, Dhankhar said, "I appeal to all to disable their political antennas for this crisis period and take respite from political mileage.
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