Two days after the Andhra Pradesh government imported one lakh rapid test kits from South Korean company, the price of which has kicked up a political controversy, the Central government has asked the state not to use the same, at least for another two days as they are yet to be validating for testing Coronavirus.
In fact, the Centre itself has imported five lakh test kits without testing their efficacy. The Jagan Mohan Reddy government, too, was given the impression that the rapid test kits would be of great help to identify the suspected Covid-19 patients. It has, in fact, placed the orders for two lakh kits for an initial price of Rs 20 crore.
Indian Council of Medical Research scientist Raman R Gangakhedkar told reporters that all states have been asked not to use the new rapid antibody test for COVID-19 for two days.
He said the ICMR would investigate the issue of faulty rapid testing kits and would "definitely not ignore this defect".
Around 5 lakh Rapid Test kits were procured by the government and distributed around the country after the ICMR recommended that every resident in coronavirus hot-spots -- or areas with a large number of cases -- will be tested for the virus.
It was decided to use fast-track kits as the regular RT-PCR tests are slow and have to be conducted in laboratories. Many states in the country do not have adequate testing facilities.
Several states, including Rajasthan, have now complained about the Rapid Test kits. Rajasthan has stopped tests through the new kits, saying they had only 5.4 per cent accuracy.
"You all know that Rapid Test Kits were distributed to all states. One state said 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 scientist said.
The medical body said in the next two days, they will send representatives to all states where the rapid test kits are being used "and will bring the samples and test here".
"If the batch of rapid test kits is found faulty, we will ask that company to replace all kits," said Dr Gangakhedkar, who is the head of epidemiology at the ICMR.
The rapid tests use blood to determine whether the body has developed antibodies for coronavirus, which is the final evidence that a person is infected and works even for people who are asymptomatic. But the test is not likely to work in the window period between infection and the body's development of antibodies.
