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None Of The 35 Lakh Made-In-China Antibody Kits Ordered By UK Are Fit For Widespread Use, Admits Testing Head
Swarajya Staff
Apr 07, 2020, 04:37 PM | Updated 04:37 PM IST
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None of the 35 lakh Covid-19 antibody kits which the United Kingdom government ordered from China are fit to be used for large scale use, the nation’s testing chief Professor John Newton has admitted, reports The Independent.
As per the report, the kits were unable to pass the evaluation stage and could only identify immunity in patients who contracted a severe form of Covid-19.
“They are not good enough to be worth rolling out in very large scale”, Professor Newton has been quoted as saying.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock too has admitted that “some of the kits have not performed well” but expresses hope that the situation would improve in the future.
This antibody testing was earlier called a gamechanger by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and are key to the country performing mass testing and eventually lifting the lockout.
It was reported earlier that Spain had send back the first batch of covid-19 testing kits it purchased from China after they were found to be inconsistent in detecting positive cases, showing an accuracy level below 30 per cent. The Czech Republic had also found nearly 80 per cent Chinese test kits delivered the wrong result.
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