China promises 'necessary assistance' to India after results of imported COVID-19 testing kits proves inaccurate

China on Wednesday said the country values the quality of medical products they export and will provide necessary help to India following reports that Chinese exported rapid testing kits are delivering inaccurate results.

"Noticed reports concerning rapid testing kits. China attaches great importance to the quality of exported medical products. Will keep close communication with Indian concerned agency and provide necessary assistance," said Counselor Ji Rong, the Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India.

This comes after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday advised the states to stop using COVID-19 rapid testing kits for the time being owing to big variations in their results and added that it would issue an advisory in this regard in the next two days.

During a press briefing here, ICMR head scientist Dr R Gangakhedkar said: "The states have been advised to not use the COVId-19 rapid testing kits for two days. A lot of variations are being reported in the results of rapid test kits. The kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams and we will give advisory in the next two days."

"The rapid test kits have been distributed to states. Yesterday, we got a complaint from a state that these kits' results are not satisfactory. Today, we asked three more states and got to know that positive samples are showing a lot of variation -- from 6 per cent to 71 per cent. This is not a good thing," he said.

"We cannot ignore these findings. We have decided to send members from our eight institutes to the field in the next two days. The kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams and we will give advisory in the next two days," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, the state government in Rajasthan stopped using the China-made rapid testing kits for COVID-19 after they delivered inaccurate results.

On April 18, a special Air India (AI) flight to Guangzhou had airlifted three lakh rapid antibody test kits, which were sent to Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.

Not only India, several countries including Spain, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic on the previous occasions had complained about Chinese delivered rapid testing tests being faulty and inconsistent.

(ANI)

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