Defective ICMR test kits delaying results: West Bengal

Kolkata: The Health Department of West Bengal has alleged defective test kits supplied by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) being the reason behind the delay in COVID-19 testing in the state.

In a series of tweets, the state Department of Health and Family Welfare said: "Apropos a mischievous report circulating in social media about the alleged delay in the time taken for testing swab samples in West Bengal, it is clarified that...the testing kits supplied by ICMR-NICED about two weeks ago have started to throw up a large number of 'inconclusive' results, necessitating a repeat/ 'confirmatory' test run, thereby causing a delay in the generation of the final test report," it tweeted."The apparently defective test kits supplied by ICMR-NICED, Kolkata are resulting in a high number of repeat/ confirmatory tests and causing delays and other attendant problems at a time when we are battling a pandemic.

This is an issue that ICMR needs to look into immediately," the health department said in another tweet.

The health department also said testing kits were being supplied from the National Institute of Virology, Pune but it has been routed from ICMR-NICED recently.

"There was no problem earlier when the testing kits were being received directly from National Institute of Virology, Pune. Recently, the supplies to Government Labs in West Bengal have been routed through ICMR-NICED, Kolkata," the department tweeted.

"This problem has been faced not just by Government labs in the State but other testing labs in the country, based on their feedback shared in the relevant user groups," it said in another tweet.