COVID-19 Test Kits: Chinese Firm 'Disappointed' With ICMR Decision

Expressing 'disappointment' over the Indian Council of Medical Research's decision to term its COVID-19 test kits as defective, the Chinese company Wondfo Biotech is said to have attributed the charge of defective rapid testing kits it had supplied to India to inaccurate timing, a CNN-News18 report stated. The firm is reported to have ascribed the variations in results to the timing of the tests which it points out as a critical factor in getting accurate results.

Wondfo Biotech is reported to have pointed out that its products had been approved by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) urged state governments on Monday to stop the use of rapid testing kits supplied by Wondfo and another supplier from China. The ICMR plans to send the test kits back to the suppliers after getting them from states.

What are rapid testing kits?

A senior ICMR official had earlier explained at a media briefing that serology kits are better known as rapid testing kits. He pointed out that the purpose of the antibody tests was surveillance, rather than diagnostic. Antibodies prepared by the body at the time of infection, fight the virus and eventually rid the body of it.

Of the kinds of antibodies, there are IgM which stay in the body for a few days and whose detection suggests that the infection is recent, the ICMR official told a media briefing. The IGG antibody, on the other hand, shows that the immune system is improving and the presence of IGG antibody without IgM antibody is an indicator that the infection is an old one, he said.

The ICMR official observed that RT-PCR is the ultimate test for the novel coronavirus to date, while speaking at the daily joint press briefing by the ICMR-Ministry of Health-PIB on April 16. Significantly, he remarked that when these tests are done, these will not be for early diagnosis, but for surveillance."

The senior ICMR scientist pointed out that regular use of antibody tests will indicate to the authorities about the transmission of the infection in hotspots.