Watch | Coronavirus Updates, April 21: Don't Use Rapid Test Kits For 2 Days, ICMR Tells States

Name: Watch | Coronavirus Updates, April 21: Dont Use Rapid Test Kits For 2 Days, ICMR Tells States - The Wire
Uploaded: 2020-04-21T23:46:51+05:30
Channel: The Wire
Description: The Wire's daily update on the spread of the coronavirus, its consequences for living, healthcare and productivity, and the global response.

The Wire's daily update on the spread of the coronavirus, its consequences for living, healthcare and productivity, and the global response.

Pawanjot Kaur

The Wire's daily update on the spread of the coronavirus, its consequences for living, healthcare and productivity, and the global response.

watch coronavirus updates april 21 don t use rapid test kits for 2 days icmr tells states

In its press briefing, the ICMR today said that it advises all states to not use the rapid test kits for two days. This came after the Rajasthan government stopped using the rapid testing kit because it was delivering inaccurate results.

Rajasthan’s health minister told the media that the accuracy of rapid test kits that they’ve received is only 5.4%.

He said that these kits were also used for testing of patients who have already tested positive for coronavirus and their results found them negative. This has raised questions about the credibility of these kits. ICMR’s Dr Gangakhedkar said that too many variations were being reported in results of rapid test kits. Within the next two days, the rapid kits will be tested and validated in the field by ICMR’s team, he said and thus states are advised to not use rapid test kits for now.

India has procured around 5 lakh rapid test kits, most of which are from China.

This article went live on April twenty-first, two thousand twenty, at forty-six minutes past eleven at night.

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