Global report: Bangladesh hospital owner accused of faking thousands of Covid-19 test results

A Bangladesh hospital owner has been arrested over allegations he issued thousands of fake negative coronavirus test results, as the Australian state of Victoria recorded the worst daily rise in cases for the nation since the pandemic began, and global coronavirus cases passed 13.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Regent hospital owner Mohammad Shahed was arrested trying to fleeing to India in a burqa after a nine-day hunt, police said. He is one of more than a dozen people detained by authorities in recent days over allegations that clinics in Uttara and Mirpur issued fake certificates to patients saying they were virus-free without testing them.

Experts say false documents have worsened the already dire virus situation in the country of 168 million people by casting doubt on the veracity of certificates issued by clinics.

Bangladesh has reported just over 193,000 infections and 2,457 deaths so far but the real figures are likely much higher because little testing has been carried out.

Police spokesman Colonel Ashique Billah told AFP: “He was arrested from the bank of a border river as he was trying to flee to India. He was wearing a burqa.

“His hospitals carried out 10,500 coronavirus tests, out of which 4,200 were genuine and the rest, 6,300 test reports, were given without conducting tests.”

Shahed is also accused of charging for the certificates and virus treatments despite agreeing that his hospitals in the capital, Dhaka, would provide free care.

Italy last week suspended flights to Rome from Bangladesh after several passengers arriving from Dhaka tested positive for Covid-19. Some of those who tested positive in Italy were allegedly carrying negative coronavirus certificates from Bangladesh, said Shakirul Islam of migrant rights group OKUP.

“The government must ensure quality of Covid-19 tests in local laboratories for the sake of its overseas job market,” said Islam.

Nearly $19bn was sent back to Bangladesh by an estimated 12 million migrant workers last year, according to the central bank.

In Australia, the state of Victoria, reported two more deaths and 317 cases on Thursday: the largest daily increase in cases for an Australian state since the start of the pandemic. Two men in their 80s died, bringing the total coronavirus deaths in the state to 29 and upping the national toll to 113. There are 109 people in hospital with 29 in intensive care, with total of 4750 cases since the pandemic began, state premier Daniel Andrews said.

The state government has paused some elective surgeries – including hip and knee surgery – at Melbourne health services to make sure extra beds are available.

In the United States, Dr Anthony Fauci, the senior public health expert on the White House coronavirus task force, said the US needed to focus from a federal level on getting the virus now surging in the south and west under control “rather than these games people are playing”.

“We’ve got to almost reset this and say, ‘OK, let’s stop this nonsense,’” he said in an interview with the Atlantic when he was asked to describe “the truth about the federal response to the pandemic”.

Fauci’s comments came as US cases increased by a world daily record of 67,000, taking the total to 3.4 million confirmed infections.

In better news, Fauci predicted on Wednesday the country would meet its goal of a vaccine by year’s end, he told Reuters in an interview, saying, “I feel good about the projected timetable.”

His comments follow promising early-stage data for the Moderna Inc’s (MRNA.O) coronavirus vaccine, released on Tuesday, that was developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci directs.

The news about the vaccine being developed by Moderna affected markets, which rallied in response to the rising hopes for a Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, and the S&P 500 climbed back to where it was a few days after it set its record early this year.

Other key global developments include:

• Canada’s efforts to flatten the curve have put the country on the brink of zero deaths for the first time since March, but officials see worrying signs of a new spike as provinces lift restrictions.

• Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has again tested positive, he told reporters on Wednesday in Brasilia, suggesting he has yet to recover from an infection first diagnosed last week, Reuters reports.

• Ireland’s prime minister, Micheal Martin, said on Wednesday night the government continues to advise against non-essential overseas travel, as he announced that a planned move to “phase 4 reopening” had been postponed to 10 August because the country’s reproduction rate – the number of people infected by a virus carrier – had increased to more than 1.

• South Africa surpassed 300,000 confirmed coronavirus cases a late on Wednesday. The country’s 311,049 cases make up close to half of Africa’s total.