Team Herald
PANJIM: A day after Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) directed States to stop use of Chinese rapid testing kits to detect coronavirus; State Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said that over 4,000 kits brought by the State are unused.
The ICMR on Tuesday directed States to stop using the newly-distributed Chinese rapid testing kits to for the next two days after huge variations in the accuracy of results were noticed across regions. States like Rajasthan have already stopped use of the kits.
“We would like to inform all that the 4000 kits, which were allocated to us by the Central government, are still sealed and we have not made use of any Rapid Testing kits to test the citizens for COVID-19 in the state,” Rane told media persons on Wednesday.
He said that the use of the kits have been kept on hold now as per the directions of ICMR.
Minister said that all the COVID-19 tests conducted in the State where through Pune Laboratory and later in the virology lab at Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC).
Government was sanctioned and allocated 4000 rapid testing kits last month. Another lot of 4,000 more kits were supposed to come to the State, soon.
Meanwhile, ICMR will be sending eight expert teams on the field to validate the results. The ICMR also said it will raise an issue with the manufacturer of the kits if results continue to be faulty.
