Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday informed that faulty antibody testing kits will be returned to the respective countries, whether it is China or any other nation. Dr Harsh Vardhan said this after he held a meeting via video conferencing with state health ministers and MoS Health and Family Welfare, Ashwini Choubey, on Friday.
While addressing the ministers, Dr Vardhan said, "Faulty antibody testing kits will be returned if they don't work properly, whether they belong to China or any other country. We have not paid for the kits yet. Wherever there is a need, we have also sent our senior officers to support you, they are not sent as monitors. They are there for hand-holding and cooperation so we get feedback on how to further extend help," the Union Health Minister told states. "Almost three and a half months have passed while fighting against Covid-19. All states are doing well. India is the only country in the world that has reported fewer cases among all other countries," he added.
Dr Vardhan added that India has around three per cent mortality rate of Covid-19. "We are on the right track to deal with Covid-19, just be confident. All Health Ministers should monitor themselves. We have not entered the third stage of transmission because it has been controlled by the help of all the states," said Dr Vardhan.
On Tuesday, India's apex medical research body ICMR advised states to stop using the rapid antibody test kits for next two days till it examines their quality in the wake of complaints that they are not fully effective. Last week, India procured five lakh rapid antibody test kits from two Chinese firms and they were distributed to several states reporting rising cases of coronavirus infection.
Rajasthan government had on Tuesday said that the kits were giving out inaccurate results.
At a press briefing, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at Indian the ICMR, Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, said the companies which supplied the kits will be asked to replace them if the kits are found to be faulty. "We have received complaints from one state and so far discussed the issue with three states. High variations ranging from 6 to 71 per cent have been reported between the results of the rapid tests and RT-PCR tests. We will advise states not to use these testing kits for the next two days," he said.
“These kits will be tested and validated in the field by teams from our eight institutes after which we will issue a clear-cut advisory for the states. If there is some fault in the batch, we will ask the company to replace the kits," Gangakhedkar said. Officials clearly indicated that the kits over which questions have been raised are from China.
In the wake of adverse reports about the quality of Chinese medical equipment, spokesperson in the Chinese embassy Ji Rong last week said China attaches great importance to the quality of medical products.
