After Spain and Czech Republic, Nepal also not to use Covid-19 test kit from China

Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population has advised the country's hospitals and medical centers not to use any sort of rapid test kits raising doubts over its standards.

Earlier this week, the tiny Himalayan country, purchased kits from China worth millions of rupees. These kits also included various medical materials.

"We have asked all the hospitals and medical centers not to use the kits to check the infection until and unless they are advised by the government and the WHO," said Dr Khem Karki, advisor to Nepal Health Minister.

"Many of the countries report showed it to be unreliable and are controversial," Dr Karki added.

Omni Group, a private company, signed a contract with the Ministry of Health and Population to purchase 75000 rapid diagnostic kits from China worth 60 million Nepali Rupees.

Last Saturday, a chartered flight of Nepal Airlines flew to China to bring the consignment, which also included medical aid from Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba.

Spain, last week, had sent back to China millions of purchased kits.

Up to 80 per cent of the 150,000 portable, quick coronavirus test kits China delivered to the Czech Republic earlier this month were faulty, National Review reported citing local Czech news site Expats.cz.

The test can produce a result in 10- 15 minutes but are really less accurate than other tests.

Nepal has been using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method to check for the COVID-19 or the Corona Virus infection which takes 24 hours to give the result.

The landlocked country to date has tested 1060 samples for COVID-19 infection, out of which five turned positive. Four are under isolation-cum-observation.