reduce” Covid-19 tests push people towards death

About 100 people, including top social activists and experts, have strongly protested against the Gujarat government’s alleged move to “dictate” the medical community to “reduce” Covid-19 tests in order to suggest that the state has fewer number of cononavirus positive patients, stating, this is nothing but “criminal negligence” which would “push people towards death without their knowledge.”
Signed among others by well-known danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, litterateur Prakash Shah, human rights activist Father Cedric Prakash, and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) professor Navdeep Mathur, in a letter to chief minister Vijay Rupani, they said, the “decision” to have fewer tests was taken after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) revealed that 80% infected patients of Covid-19 were asymptomatic, and testing alone across cross sections could help identify infected patients and new clusters in order to stop spreading the pandemic.
Contending that the state government has been negligent towards the Covid-19 crisis from the very beginning, the letter said, before the ICMR insistence on tests, these were being conducted in a very selective manner. Worse, doctors and nurses were not being provided with safety gears, and the lockdown was enforced with the aid of police and drone.