A day after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) advised the state governments to not use new rapid antibody test for coronavirus COVID-19 testing for two days, a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India, Ji Rong, on Wednesday (April 22) said that Beijing attaches great importance to the quality of exported medical products and Chinese official will remain in touch with ICMR and provide the necessary assistance in this regard.
"Noticed reports concerning rapid testing kits. China attaches great importance to the quality of exported medical products. Will keep close communication with #Indian concerned agency and provide the necessary assistance," tweeted Ji Rong.
Noticed reports concerning rapid testing kits. #China attaches great importance to the quality of exported medical products. Will keep close communication with #Indian concerned agency and provide necessary assistance.
— Ji Rong (@ChinaSpox_India) April 21, 2020
On Tuesday, ICMR had said that it will investigate the issue of faulty kits. "Too much variations have been reported in results of rapid test kits and RT-PCR kits. We advise states not to use them for the next two days," R Gangakhedkar, head scientist of ICMR said during the daily press briefing.
Gangakhedkar added that ICMR has received a complaint from a state on April 20 and has so far discussed with three other states. "These kits will be tested and validated in the field by our teams. We will issue a clear-cut advisory in two days. If problems are detected in batches, we will tell the companies for replacement," he noted.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Rajasthan government had said that it will not use Chinese rapid testing kits for COVID-19 after they failed to deliver accurate results.
Talking to the media, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma had said the kits gave only 5.4 per cent accurate results against the expectation of 90% accuracy and therefore the kits were useless.
