Fraudulent corona reports  

A number of systemic drawbacks and lacunae have already beset the novel coronavirus treatment process in the country. Lately, the detection of a highly troubling development portends worse times ahead in the corona sector. It involves supplying fake corona-negative testing certificates in exchange for money. The clientele comprises passengers intending to fly abroad and the patients who want to get admitted to hospitals for ailments not related to Covid-19. In the recent times, general people with common health complications and in need of emergency treatments are reportedly having problems with admission to many general hospitals.

As has been reported in The Financial Express recently, some gangs are allegedly involved in the criminal act of manufacturing these fake corona-negative certificates, and selling them. The prices start with a minimum of Tk 5,000 a certificate. As the supposedly corona-negative patients manage to occupy spaces in a hospital and later emerge as corona-positive cases, a troubling and confusing situation ensues. The anxiety of the normal patients is deepening. It's because a hospital not specialised in handling corona cases finds itself in a tight spot in such a situation.  In view of the deteriorating corona pandemic, experts believe nothing short of an all-out operation aimed at busting the fake corona certificate selling gangs will eradicate them. Moreover, the certificates submitted by hospital admission seekers ought to be scrutinised meticulously. Medical experts have not wasted time to call the practice a serious threat to the country's corona treatment scenario. The prime need at the moment, thus, is the capability of doctors at the hospitals to tell the genuine certificates from the fake ones. According to the report, a team of RAB-3 made a swoop on a gang in the capital when its members were engaged in selling fake corona-negative certificates. The alarming aspect of the news is the intelligence agencies' disclosure about the active presence of these gangs around corona-testing hospitals, numbering 56 in the country.

People crowding the testing facilities to give samples and, later, waiting for hours to get their reports have lately become a common scenario. With the members of the fake report-making gangs on the prowl, the exhausted or gullible people finally walk into their trap. With the sudden increase in the confirmed corona cases, and the number of exclusively corona-treating hospitals proving inadequate, the demand for fake corona-negative reports continues to soar. The whole episode has recently caused much embarrassment to Bangladesh after the detection of corona-positive travellers from the country into a couple of friendly countries. A publicity campaign has to be launched to dissuade fake certificate seekers from pursuing the evil course. It is living dangerously as well as bringing bad name to the country.

It doesn't require elaboration to grasp the extent of the toll that counterfeit corona-negative certificates can exact on human lives and sufferings of non-corona patients at the hospitals. The fear stems from the fact that the general patients will become vulnerable to the dreadful disease. Thus, it calls for eliminating the crime root and branch. There should be no lowering of the guard in chasing and crushing the syndicates. Or else, they will spawn a mess-up in both the country's corona cure and general healthcare sectors.