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With Domestic Capacity To Produce A Billion RT-PCR Testing Kits, Centre Allows Manufacturers To Export Them
Swarajya Staff
Aug 10, 2020, 12:16 PM | Updated 12:16 PM IST
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In a positive development, Indian manufacturers of RT-PCR kits used for detection of COVID-19 in patients are now set to export their kits to nations in Latin America, East Asia and Eastern Europe as the government has permitted restricted shipments, reports Economic Times.
Within a matter of months, India has developed a formidable capacity to domestically produce a billion RT-PCR kits, which has also helped the nation ramp up daily testing capacity to more than 6,00,000 samples.
With such capacity, domestic manufacturers had complained that they were finding themselves stuck with surplus inventory, given the State governments were not picking up the testing kits. In this light, the Government's decision comes as a major boost to such producers.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has fixed export quotas for viral transport media kits (VTM kits) and RT-PCR kits including swabs. The export quota for VTM kits has been set at 23.8 million kits, while for RT-PCR kits the quota has been capped at 10 million for the ongoing month of August.
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