Worst fears about systemic failure on the coronavirus testing came true on Monday in Tana village in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district when many persons tested positive for Covid-19 even without offering their swab or blood samples, officials said on Wednesday. Health department technician Guman Singh apparently decided to test the efficiency of the laboratory where samples are sent for examination. He had been hearing complaints about the loopholes in the testing system. He collected only four samples from the village.

The health department team collected the names and other details of 15 other persons without taking their samples. Many of them were not even not in the village at that time. Singh is said to have admitted having manipulated the samples. He said when many villagers had been suspecting the genuineness of the tests. So, he sent 20 test kits without the swab samples for the examination to the laboratory, he said. Most of them had just been dipped in plain water, Guman Singh claimed on a television channel.