Plea in HC on using only kits cleared by virology institute or EEU for coronavirus tests

A lawyer has approached the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Union and state governments to use only rapid test kits that have been tested to be satisfactory either by National Institute of Virology or by European Economic Union for coronavirus tests.

According to the petitioner, there was very high global demand for testing kits and specifically rapid testing kits for diagnosis of COVID-19.

There have been reported instances of defective or ineffective rapid test kits of Chinese origin been sold to those in desperate need for some form of testing in their pursuit to stop spread of the virus.

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Spain and Turkey have been victims to such sale of defective/ineffective kits, he said.

He further submitted that test results have been found to be erroneous with both false negatives and false positives thereby making the exercise of test with the kits a futile one.

Some states like Punjab have returned these kits back to the Indian Council of Medical Research.

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Subsequently, on April 21 ICMR instructed all the states to halt testing for the virus using the rapid test kits which do not confirm to the standards declared by it.

In these circumstances, the petitioner wanted the court to direct the authorities to only use kits that are approved by the two institutions.