India is expecting a consignment of rapid testing kits from China and this consignment is likely to arrive in the country on April 15, officials of the Health Ministry told the media on Monday. Over the past few days, there has been much speculation over the import of more rapid testing kits, which will help to further increase testing measures in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Gangakhedkar of the Indian Medical Council for Research (ICMR) was responding to a media query over the diversion of rapid testing kits that were to be sent to Tamil Nadu to the United States of America. Dr Gangakhedkar said that ICMR did not know details of this as they did not keep track of the manufacturers and the route data of the kits. He, however, stated that a consignment of rapid test kits is expected to arrive from China on April 15.
Several states, including Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, had placed orders for rapid test kits from China. There were delays in receiving the testing kits. While officials in Karnataka confirmed to TNM earlier that a recent policy change implemented by the Chinese government had resulted in the delays, it came to light on Saturday that kits which had been ordered by Tamil Nadu were diverted to the US.
Kerala has, in the meantime, issued a set of guidelines and protocols to follow when undertaking rapid testing. As part of this, 4 priority groups have been identified, who are required to undergo the antibody test.
Earlier, on April 6, Dr Gangakhedkar had told the media that an order for 5 lakh kits has been placed and 2.5 lakh kits are expected to be delivered by April 8 or 9. However, on April 11, an ICMR official stated that India has not received supply yet and that it “may come in 2-3 days.”
As of Monday, there have been a total of 9,152 cases of coronavirus disease in the country, with 857 individuals having recovered from it. There have been 796 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, as on April 13. There have been 308 lives lost to the disease till date with 35 having been reported in the past 24 hours alone, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said.