Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
Three states have indicated that the Chinese-made Rapid Test kits distributed across the country are not fully effective, ICMR said on Tuesday.
“One state said that there are inaccuracies in these test kits. We confirmed this with three states and found that the findings were true to an extent. This is not a good sign. We are working on it,” the ICMR’s Dr R Gangakedhkar said during the daily press briefing.
“We have taken cognizance of it, and definitely not ignoring this defect,” he added.
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“If the batch of rapid test kits are found faulty, we will ask that company to replace all kits,” the ICMR had said.
As per the reports, Rajasthan said it has stopped testing with the Chinese kits, saying they proved effective only in 5.4 per cent cases.
Earlier this month, the government had procured around 6.5 lakh Rapid Testing kits from China.
The kits were distributed across the country after the ICMR advised testing for all people in the COVID-19 hotspots across the country, which started four days ago.
Soon after the Chinese shipment reached India, controversy erupted as a section of media questioned the quality of the kits.
However, Beijing last week denied that the kits were of inferior quality. They said they attach great importance to the export of medical products.
The authorities, Beijing said, have introduced stricter regulatory measures that require exporting firms to provide statements when declaring to the customs that their exports have obtained the registration certificate for medical device from the State Food and Drug Administration and met the quality standards of the importing country or region.
India has received 6.5 lakh kits last week from China and another 20 lakh is being purchased which is expected over the next 15 days, the government has said.
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