India stalls use of rapid COVID-19 test kits for 2 days after states complain of defective results

Apr 21, 2020, 16:57 IST

All the states in India were asked not to use rapid antibody testing kits for the next two days, says ICMR.
This comes after two states — West Bengal and Rajasthan — raised concerns over the validity of the results.
The Rajasthan government stopped the use of China-made rapid testing kits for coronavirus after they delivered inaccurate results.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) today asked states to stop using rapid antibody testing kits for the next two days. ICMR will test the testing kits for accuracy before they give advice on its use.

“States are advised not to use rapid testing kits for two days. A lot of kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams and we will give advisory in the next 2 days,” said Dr R Gangakhedkar senior scientist ICMR.

ICMR says it will analyse the testing kits after two states — West Bengal and Rajasthan — raised concerns over the validity of their results.

Rajasthan and West Bengal stops use of rapid testing

The Rajasthan government today ceased the use of China-made rapid testing kits after they delivered inaccurate results. The state's health minister Raghu Sharma said the kits gave only 5.4% accurate results against the expectation of 90% accuracy and therefore the kits were of no benefit. He also said that ICMR was informed about the issue.

According to Sharma, the rapid test results came negative for patients who tested positive in lab tests. Before Rajasthan, West Bengal government alleged that the COVID-19 testing kits — supplied by the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) and ICMR — showed inaccurate results.

NICED withdrew a consignment of defective COVID-19 testing kits from a few state-run laboratories in West Bengal. The faulty kits were replaced by those provided by the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV).

The ICMR-NICED authorities said it could be possible because the kits have not been standardised and it is considering the matter "very seriously". Last week, India received 5 lakh testing kits, including rapid antibody test kits, from two Chinese firms.

(With PTI)