NEW DELHI: The sources in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which has been at the forefront of the government’s response to coronavirus, has informed that nearly 6.5 lakh medical kits, including 3 lakh rapid antibody testing kits, is arriving soon from China.
The MEA has been regularly coordinating with foreign agencies to ensure vital medical supplies from other countries to tackle the COVID-19 challenge.
As part of these efforts, the first lot of 3 lakh Rapid Antibody Testing Kits from Guangzhou Wondfo, 2.5 lakh kits from Zhuhai Livzon and 1 lakh RNA Extraction Kits from MGI Shenzhen were given custom clearance on Wednesday and the consignment is on the way to India.
In total, around 6.5 lakh medical kits should reach us on Thursday, the MEA sources said. “Our Embassy in Beijing and Consulate in Guangzhou played a key role in this,” the MEA sources said.
Indian Ambassador to Beijing Vikram Misri also confirmed the news by saying, ''Over two million test kits being procured from China will be sent to India in the next 15 days.''
''#IndiaFightsCoronavirus. A total of 650,000 kits, including Rapid Antibody Tests and RNA Extraction Kits, have been despatched early today from Guangzhou Airport to #India,'' Misri tweeted on Thursday.
It may be noted that the delay in procuring anti-body testing kits has resulted in a delay in ramping up the testing strategy in containment zones of the country. The Indian Council of Medical Research had recommended the use of rapid anti-body testing for COVID-19 in high containment zones on April 2.
ICMR's chief epidemiologist RR Gangakhedkar had said on Monday that the first consignment of rapid testing kits is likely to arrive in the country on April 15. India already missed four previous deadlines to supply antibody test kits.
According to the ICMR, India placed the order to import rapid anti-body kits to about 30 countries. As per reports, the kits from China were found to be relatively faulty and hence orders were placed from other countries as well.
The testing kits ordered earlier from China had failed quality tests, resulting in Beijing putting on hold its consignment.
However, MEA sources said that India had placed orders from South Korea, Singapore and China almost at the same time. Most orders are placed simultaneously to ensure a smooth supply for India.
According to experts, India needs to "significantly ramp up" the number of tests done across the country to trace COVID-19 infection if the virus is to be contained in time. Experts feel the figures are modest for a count of the size of 1.3 billion and "much more tests" are needed to combat the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
The death toll due to coronavirus rose to 414 and the number of cases to 12,380 in the country on Thursday, according to the Union Health Ministry. While the number of active COVID-19 cases is 10,477, as many as 1,488 people have been cured and discharged and one had migrated, it said.
Data obtained from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, till April 14, the number of samples tested stood at 2,44,893, an increase of 27,339 from the corresponding figure till the previous day (2,17,554).
