To speed up Covid 19 screening, India is looking to use rapid test Kits due to spike in cases and growing coronavirus hotspots in the country. Rapid tests are supposed to detect antibodies in the blood of people who have had Covid 19 India has cancelled orders for about half a million coronavirus rapid kits from China after they were found to be” faulty”. Delhi has also withdrawn the kits that were already in use in several states. The kits take around half-hour to deliver a result and are alleged to detect antibodies in the blood of individuals who may have had the infection.
” The standard of medical products exported from China is prioritised. It is unfair and irresponsible surely individuals to label Chinese products as ‘ faulty’ and appearance at issues with pre- empire prejudice,” Chinese embassy spokesperson Ji Rong said in a statement issued on Tuesday. The rapid testing kits cannot test for coronavirus itself and a number of other scientists have raised concerns over their use for diagnosis.
In India this is currently at nine days there were 825 confirmed deaths on 26th April, compared 10 about half or so of that number on 16 April. Experts say that’s good news. The doubling time for deaths in Newyork at the same stage of the pandemic was only two or three days, they say.
The test kits then also failed quality checks by the ICMR. On Monday, the Delhi High court capped the price of the tests and suggested that the government had overpaid. Until now, RT- PCR was the only way to identify stars virus. While highly accurate, the testing methodology has drawbacks, including taking up to five hours to deliver result.
