ICMR asks states to halt using Rapid Test Kits

ICMR's Chief Scientist Dr Raman Gangakhedkar urged the states to stop using the rapid testing kits for Covid-19 for at least two days, until their kinks are ironed out.

New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday asked states to halt the use of rapid testing kits for Covid-19 for at least two days as the kits are giving inaccurate results.

At the daily media briefing, ICMR's Chief Scientist, Dr Raman Gangakhedkar said: "We have received complaints from a state yesterday, therefore, today we asked two more states if they also experienced the same problem.

"Hence, we have advised states to halt the use of rapid testing kits for two days."

Gangakhedkar also said that a lot of variations were observed in the results of positive samples tested by RTPCR which is not good, therefore its usage should be stopped for the time being.

"We will be in a position to give any advisory in some time - a minimum of two days," he said.

The ICMR Chief Scientist also said that the kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams instead of labs as the disease is new so the testing kits need to be refined.

"We will send teams of our eight institutes in the field... they will validate the kits in the field and if it is found that there is some problem in the batches of kits received we will send that batch to the manufacturing company for replacement."

(PTI Report)