India received 5 lakh rapid COVID-19 testing kits from China: Health Ministry

India received the much-awaited five lakh rapid COVID-19 testing kits from China on Thursday, the government said.

The Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at ICMR, Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar, however, said these testing kits will be used for surveillance and to monitor whether coronavirus hotspots in the country are increasing or decreasing.

Regarding concern over the efficacy of the rapid antibody testing kits, he said if an antibody test of a person turns out to be positive, one cannot necessarily be sure the person would not get infected ever again. "This means, even if antibody is present, that doesn't mean it will necessarily be effectively able to fight the virus."
Commenting on the testing capacity of ICMR network, the official said "Working in one shift, more than 42,400 samples can be tested each day. If we work in two shifts, we will be able to test more than 78,200 samples daily."