Maharashtra has been waiting for the rapid testing kits of COVID-19 for quite some time now. So earlier in the week when they reached, many took a sigh of relief. However, the state government will now have to wait for at least 2 more days before starting to use these rapid test kits.
Rajasthan was one of the first states in the country to start tests using these rapid kits that have been imported from China. On Tuesday Rajasthan government announced that they are discontinuing tests using these rapid test kits, as they are not delivering correct results.
Rajasthan’s health minister Raghu Sharma said the rapid kits against the expected accuracy of 90 per cent were delivering only 5.4 per cent accurate and hence they are of no real use. He also mentioned that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been informed about the issue.
Following this ICMR has asked other states to hold on to the rapid testing kits and it will be carrying out field tests using these kits in different states to check how accurate it is. If they find that the certain batch or batches are not delivering the accuracy criteria then will send it back to supplier who will then have to replace them. So far, China has denied that the kits sent to India are of inferior quality.
Apart from Rajasthan, two more states have expressed that there are serious quality issues in the rapid test kits. Maharashtra had planned to carry out 75,000 test kits but now will have to wait till further directions come from ICMR.
This is not the first time China has sent faulty kits to a country. On March 26, Spain too had pointed out that the kits sent by China are of inferior quality. They had shared that they had carried out hundreds of thousands of tests to combat the virus, but nearly 60,000 could not accurately determine if a patient wad COVID-19 positive or not.
Turkey too in the past have made a similar accusation about the testing kits procured from Chinese companies.
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