This archive report was first published on 22 April 2020.
India's COVID-19 cases continue to surge, with the country recording 20,000 cases, making it the 17th country to reach this milestone. The rapid increase in cases has led to a nationwide lockdown, but the situation remains critical.
According to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, India has reported 20,178 cases and 645 deaths as of Tuesday. The country's testing rate has dropped significantly, from 35,000 on Monday to 27,500 on Tuesday, due to the faulty kits.
Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar, a top scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research, revealed that the positive samples of RT-PCR are showing too much variation when tested by rapid kits, ranging from 6 to 71%. He added that eight ICMR institutes will test the kits in different states to validate and check if a batch of the imported kits is faulty.
India became the world's 17th country to record 20,000 COVID-19 cases after 1,493 cases were reported on Tuesday, the second-highest single-day spike after Sunday's 1,553. The faulty kits have led to a pause in the antibody testing, causing a dip in the testing rates.
Ashok Gehlot, chief minister of the western state of Rajasthan, criticized the government for not accepting his suggestion to develop a centralized mechanism with proper guidelines for quality checks on medical equipment. He stated, 'I had earlier suggested to GOI [government of India] that a centralized mechanism with proper guidelines of the quality check may be developed for the procurements of Medical equipment. Unfortunately, this was not accepted. Had this suggestion been accepted, failure of Rapid Test kits could have been avoided.'
