Spain to return faulty Chinese kits to detect coronavirus

Madrid: Spain has suspended the use of Chinese kits to detect coronavirus after being found to be faulty.

As per media reports, Spain discovered that the rapid test kits failed to detect positive cases. Spain has so far confirmed 57,786 cases for the novel coronavirus and is the worst hit in Europe after Italy from coronavirus.

The virus has hit Spain hard with the second-highest number of deaths at over 4,000. With less confirmed cases than China, Spain has higher death cases than it.

Experts in Spain have reached a conclusion that the kits from China are failing to detect positive corona cases. Spanish newspaper El Pais in a report said that the Chinese kits have only 30 percent sensitivity and are able to detect only 30 percent of the positive cases whereas the tests need to be at least 80 percent sensitive to be effective.

Fernando Simon, the director of Spain’s Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies has said that the 9,000 of the test kits brought from China were found to be ‘not good enough’ and hence Spain has decided to return them.

A spokesperson of the Carlos III Health Institute, part of the Spanish government, told that the test kits from China would be returned and new test kits approved by the government will be launched.

The rapid test kits are reportedly manufactured by the Chinese company Bioeasy. Reportedly, similar kits have been supplied to various other countries including Georgia and the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic also confirmed that the rapid test kits from China are not working at the expected capacity.

However, China is yet to respond to the fresh allegations as it is already facing flak for its handling of information emanating from the virus outbreak.

IANS