By Pepi Sappal • Published: 27 Mar 2020 • 18:06
ALL 650,000 rapid coronavirus (Covid-19) detection kits that Spain recently bought from China are defective and have to be returned, said Spain’s Health Minister, Salvador Illa, at a press conference this afternoon.
Earlier, it was thought only a batch of around 9,000 kits were faulty, and had to be returned. However, after other batches were tested by health experts, it was found that none of the test kits are of ‘quality’ or ‘up to standard’. Lab tests revealed that the new rapid testing kits were actually only correctly identifying positive cases around 30 per cent of the time.
The Spanish government purchased the rapid test kits from Chinese firm Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology, in a bid to start mass testing and get a clearer picture of the extent of the rate of infection rate in the country. However, it recently transpired that this firm doesn’t actually have an ‘official licence’ to sell these tests or any other medical equipment.
This is a huge set back for Spain as the number of people infected with coronavirus has soared to 64,059, with 4,858 dead from the disease. However, Illa concluded the conference, saying that he hopes to get his hands on five million rapid tests through the World Health Organisation.
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