The arrival of the rapid testing kits to India from China, which originated Coronavirus late last year, had initially put the hope to increase the testing capabilities in the country amid the outbreak. However, the outcomes of the results created more chaos among the medical experts and people as the results had either varied or turned inaccurate.
The variance of the results had let the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which is India's task force to combat the spread, to take a call on the rapid testing kits imported from China. On Tuesday, the ICMR has directed all the state governments to put the rapid testing kits on hold for the next two days from testing the patients for the virus.
States advised not to use rapid testing kits for two days. A lot of variations, kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams and we will give advisory in the next 2 days: R Gangakhedkar, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) pic.twitter.com/rWGe5a3T9Z
— ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020
The announcement has come hours after the Rajasthan government has stopped using the testing kits by claiming that the outcomes are inaccurate. In the daily press briefing on Tuesday, the ICMR said that the rapid kits would be tested and validated by on-ground teams following which the council would issue a fresh advisory in two days.
ICMR stated that the council has received a complaint of less detection from a state after which the council reached three states and identified that there are a lot of variations in the accuracy of the test results. The task force would be deploying eight expert teams on the field to validate the results and it has also said that the complaint would be raised with the manufacturer of the kits if the variations exist.
On Tuesday, Rajasthan has stopped using the rapid testing kits called Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test after delivering inaccurate results. West Bengal has also approached ICMR with a similar complaint. Last week, India has received five lakh rapid testing kits from China following which the kits were dispatched to the states based on the infection rates.
4,49,810 samples have been tested so far. 35,852 samples were tested yesterday, of which 29,776 samples were tested in 201 Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) network labs and remaining 6,076 samples were tested in 86 private labs: R Gangakhedkar, ICMR #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/ScpMIit6kf
— ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2020
The procurement of the rapid kits was aimed to expedite the screening of the patients as it would deliver the results in thirty minutes, unlike the PCRs which would take five to six hours to deliver the results. Apart from the Central government, most of the states, including Tamil Nadu, had separately placed orders to China to procure the testing kits and the inaccurate results won't be a welcoming one for the country which has been reeling to stem the spread of the virus through extensive testing and extraordinary measures. India has tested 4,49, 810 samples so far.
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