elhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday (April 21) advised the state governments to not use new rapid antibody test for coronavirus COVID-19 for two days, saying it will investigate the issue of faulty kits. “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, head scientist of ICMR said during the daily press briefing today.
Earlier in the day, the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) said it is withdrawing the consignment of defective COVID-19 testing kits from some of the state-run laboratories in West Bengal. The faulty kits were replaced by those provided by the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV), an official said.
The West Bengal government alleged that the COVID-19 testing kits supplied by the NICED, a fortnight ago were apparently defective as they showed inconclusive results leading to repeated confirmatory tests and delay in diagnosis.
The ICMR-NICED authorities said it could be possible because the kits have not been standardised and it is considering the matter “very seriously”.
Bureau Report
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