India coronavirus: Rapid testing paused over China kit issues

[DavidsSling]

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionRapid tests have been hailed as game-changers to help economies restart

India's main medical research organisation has asked states to pause the use of rapid testing kits over concerns that they are faulty.

Several states have complained that the kits - which are supposed to test for the presence of antibodies against the coronavirus - are malfunctioning.

India imported almost one million kits from China to ramp up testing.

Several other countries have reported problems with kits from China, but Beijing has denied quality issues.

In a statement last week, China said it attached "great importance to the export of medical products".

What is happening in India?
At least three Indian states have expressed dissatisfaction with the kits, with the northern state of Rajasthan refusing outright to use them.

Officials there said the state only had an accuracy of 5%. They added that they used the kits on patients who they already knew were positive, but the tests had shown a "negative" result.

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This prompted the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to ask all states to pause using the kits for two days until it examined them properly.

However, the ICMR said it had always cautioned against wide use of the rapid testing kits as a primary "diagnostic tool" for Covid-19.

The NDTV news channel quoted an ICMR official as saying that data on antibody tests was "still emerging and its utility is still evolving".

How are the tests supposed to work?
The principle is very simple - the test is based on checking for antibodies for the Covid-19 coronavirus from blood samples.

It has been likened in some cases to a simple "yes/no" pregnancy test.

The idea is that it will be able to tell if people had the virus and developed immunity to it.

The kits had been hailed as a "game-changer" tool to help restart economies across the world and governments ordered them in large amounts from China, in addition to trying to develop their own.

However, they are running into problems in a number of countries, including the US and the UK.

What issues are being faced in other countries?

In the US, the New York Times reported that tests of "frankly dubious quality" have flooded the American market, saying that it has been found that it mistakenly flags some people as having antibodies when they actually don't.

In the UK, scientists have said that the tests have a low sensitivity rate and Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the media that they were "not good enough" as yet.

For now, it seems that the lab tests, which are more complex and time-consuming, are still the only reliable method of testing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52378265

 

[DavidsSling]

India Sources Rapid Test Kits From South Korea As States Complain Of Faulty China Kits

"The Indian embassy in Seoul has signed an agreement with a South Korean company for supply of 500,000 rapid test kits to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The kits will be delivered to India in four lots and the first batch will reach India on 30 April, a statement from the embassy said.

The statement also said that India has sourced 450,000 tests (RT-PCR and antibody) from various Korean companies over the last few weeks.

This comes amid complaints about faulty rapid test kits, procured from China, from states. ICMR on Tuesday advised states not to use them for the next two days, saying it will issue an advisory after their teams carry out field validation of these equipments.

At the daily government briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, ICMR’s Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar said, “We received complaint from a state yesterday and have so far discussed with three states. We advise states not to use them for the next two days.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry...faulty-china-kits_in_5e9ef3e5c5b63c5b5874a771

South Korean Firm Starts Producing Covid-19 Rapid Test Kits in India on Mass Scale After Chinese Ones Found Faulty

New Delhi: A South Korea-based company has established an Indian subsidiary in Haryana's Manesar and rolled out five lakh rapid antibody test kits now available for use as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.

SD Biosensor, which started production from its Manesar facility with a capacity to churn out 5,00,000 rapid test kits, aims to scale up production in the coming weeks to meet the growing demand, said a statement from the Embassy of India in South Korea's capital Seoul.


India in ROK

✔@IndiainROK
· Apr 21, 2020

Mr Young-shik Cho, Chairman of SD Biosensor called on @ambsripriya to discuss the company’s activities and plans for dealing with COVID-19 pandemic. @MEAIndia @mofa_kr @MOTIEKoreaEng @SDBIOSENSOR_PR @PIB_India @MoHFW_INDIA



India in ROK

✔@IndiainROK

SD Biosensor has just started production from its Manesar facility with a capacity of 500,000 rapid test kits per week. This will be further enhanced in coming weeks to meet growing demand. @MEAIndia @mofa_kr @MOTIEKoreaEng @MoHFW_INDIA @SDBIOSENSOR_PR


186
9:15 PM - Apr 21, 2020 · Yongsan-gu, Republic of Korea
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The company's chairperson Young-shik Cho on Tuesday called on Sripriya Ranganathan, India's Ambassador to South Korea, to discuss the company’s activities and plans for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move came a day after sources in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said India will procure at least five lakh rapid test kits from South Korea. The consignments from Humasis Ltd are expected to arrive in four batches starting April 30 as a part of the central pool and will be given to states.

The rapid test kits help examine whether a person has developed antibodies in their blood stream to fight the novel coronavirus, which indicates whether a person has been exposed to or has COVID-19.

The South Korean company ramping up production in India attains significance since China-made rapid testing kits for coronavirus have been found to be faulty on several occasions and have delivered inaccurate results.

The Rajasthan government on Tuesday stopped using the China-made rapid testing kits for coronavirus, with state's health minister Raghu Sharma saying they gave only 5.4% accurate results against the expectation of 90% accuracy and so were of no benefit. After the complaint from a few other states, the ICMR advised states to not use these kits for two days until it comes out with a fresh advisory.

Ranganathan had indicated that India is likely to be the beneficiary of South Korea's manufacturing plans post the Covid-19 crisis and how the world does business.

"I am hopeful that over the next few months, this will obviously not be an immediate development, but over the next few months more Korean companies will see the merit of setting up their manufacturing in India so that they are able to meet the huge demands of India right there, from there,” she had told CNN-News18 in an exclusive interview over the phone from Seoul.

In a post COVID-19 scenario, countries like the United States, South Korea and Japan, which are hugely dependent on China, are looking at alternatives and India could emerge as a preferred destination provided it is able to step up the game.

Ranganathan also said South Korea has stepped up its production of COVID-19 testing kits tremendously to meet the current requirements. She said, "Over the next few weeks and months, we should be able to take advantage of this capacity and this very positive feeling towards India to be able to enhance our sourcing from there."

https://www.news18.com/news/india/k...ists-on-the-frontline-from-today-2588841.html

 

[Baba_Yaga]

Steps of Chinese business model

1) Eat exotic animals
2) Create local epidemic
3) Import tons of high quality PPE and masks from other nations
4) Cry out when nations try to ban flights and also do massive coverup of extent of the epidemic
5) Convert epidemic to pandemic
6) Resell masks, PPE etc that you bought earlier at 2-3 times the price
7) Create cheap faulty test kits and export them to desperate nations
8) Enjoy the new profits
9) Wait for 10-15 years
10) Repeat from Step 1 onwards

 

[Skull and Bones]

Thank to South Korea for providing effective kits at the time of need.

 

[DoTell]

1.3 billion Indians, 8.9 trillions of whom are illiterate, with the ability to mistake Jupiter as Chinese fighter jet or bomb their own docked submarine to the bottom of the ocean, I fear they can manage to misread the user manual on the test kit too. May cows have mercy on them

 

[xuxu1457]

There are dozens of companies in China that produce testing reagents.
90% states are using them.

 

[DavidsSling]

Steps of Chinese business model

1) Eat exotic animals
2) Create local epidemic
3) Import tons of high quality PPE and masks from other nations
4) Cry out when nations try to ban flights and also do massive coverup of extent of the epidemic
5) Convert epidemic to pandemic
6) Resell masks, PPE etc that you bought earlier at 2-3 times the price
7) Create cheap faulty test kits and export them to desperate nations
8) Enjoy the new profits
9) Wait for 10-15 years
10) Repeat from Step 1 onwards

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[grey boy 2]

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Why're you so ashame of your country of origin "India"?

 

[DavidsSling]

Why're you so ashame of your country of origin "India"?

lol I am proud of Australia and Israel.

 

[Globenim]

Of course no mention that the "problem" with the batch of Chinese testkits was false information and flawed preparation on the Indian side by Indian makeshift "labs" incorrectly applying working testkits, nor that the Indian made testkits made from U.S. parts supposed to replace the "faulty" Chinese testkits reportedly "failed" either for the same reason, nor of course that the Korean procurement "amid complaints" are just that additional procurements not "replacements" unless otherwise stated (and since they conveniently never mentioned the US sourced PPE no one will of course get the impression that Koreans replaced faulty US ones), nor of course that the faulty testkits stories in the USA they slipped in the are not even related to China, nor of course the countless flawless Chinese testkits used all over the world to keep things in context, nor of course that Chinese "profiters" keep reimbursing customers if they think there is something wrong with the product or they purchased simply the wrong tests so they are actually making a loss on this.

Just like when they always frame Chinese travelers while American travelers evidently spread the virus troughout half the globe.

 

[grey boy 2]

Chinese love drinking bat and pangolin urine. It is national delicacy there. . If India is filthier, why have all the pandemics originated in China? 5 till now. China is easily the filthiest nation in the world.

Didn't you know calling these test kits faulty is RACIST?

Why're you so ashame of your country of origin "India"?

 

[DavidsSling]

View attachment 626383

lol

 

[Baba_Yaga]

View attachment 626383


Why're you so ashame of your country of origin "India"?

The funny part is that Chinese eat anything they find on the ground. Chinese would even eat the open defecation

 

[Tumba]

Couldn't have said it better myself.

on top of that chinese have jacked up API prices by 40-50% at this time for need, India has still kept the prices of medicines low ... shame on chinese

 

[grey boy 2]

The funny part is that Chinese eat anything they find on the ground. Chinese would even eat the open defecation

My rule, NO more than twice replying a "supicious online dalit" which may cause me bad luck, please don't reply me anymore, "Continue as a happy DN slave"