A careless laboratory technician may have caused a tiff between the Centre and the West Bengal government over the quality of testing kits for COVID-19.
The West Bengal Health and Family Welfare Department had taken to Twitter to complain about the faulty COVID-19 test kits that were throwing up inconclusive results and asked the Indian Council of Medical Research to look into the matter.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee holds the Health portfolio.
Upon examination, the ICMR found that the RT-PCR kits used by West Bengal were supplied by BGI and approved by the US FDA. However, the kits need to be stored below 20 degrees Celsius and could throw up incorrect results if kept at room temperature.
According to Raman Gangakhedkar, the Head of ICMR’s Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases department, the technicians have to be careful while conducting the tests and ensure that the kits are always stored below 20 degrees celsius.
“We have told the West Bengal Government that the kits we use in NIV which can do 10,000 tests and are available in National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) in Kolkata. We are providing these kits for temporary use to get over the crisis,” Gangakhedkar said.
The West Bengal government was also facing allegations of suppressing the number of COVID-19 deaths and testing fewer samples compared to other states..