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MP asks Centre for help as tally inches closer to 2,000
The state government had ordered 116,500 antibody testing kits on April 19 when it had 14,200 of them. Of the kits available then, 14,000 had been issued to the labs while 200 were kept in stock.
Madhya Pradesh on Friday sought the Centre’s help in dealing with a shortage of Covid-19 testing kits as the number of infections in Indore alone crossed the 1,000-mark while the state’s tally reached 1,846.
“We have enough machines. We can get more machines but we do not have testing kits. You will have to give more testing kits,’’ Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra told Union health minister Harshvardhan during a video conference on Friday
Mishra and health department officials refused to share details about the shortage, saying it may create panic two days after chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the state now has a testing capacity of 2,000 daily.
The state government had ordered 116,500 antibody testing kits on April 19 when it had 14,200 of them. Of the kits available then, 14,000 had been issued to the labs while 200 were kept in stock. The government had ordered 102,600 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kits. It had issued 22,520 such kits to labs by April 19 and stocked 5,300.
The Centre on Tuesday asked states to put on hold for two days antibody testing for Covid-19 using rapid testing kits supplied to them late last week, citing huge variations in the results.
Indore commissioner Akash Tripathi said they were in touch with every vendor but none of them was giving assurances for supplying the kits before two weeks.
Officials said the government has been forced to send samples to other states for testing and that has delayed the process of getting reports. They added there is already a delay of 7 to 10 days in getting reports as the labs are overburdened.
Mishra urged Harshvardhan to intervene and ensure the release of over 1,700 test reports from a Noida lab.
On Friday alone, the state sent as many as 1,600 samples to Puducherry in anticipation of getting early reports. As many as 8,843 reports were pending as of Friday.
Public health expert Amulya Nidhi said they have been saying from day one that the government’s approach is wrong. “It is mainly focussed on ensuring lockdown restrictions and social distancing whereas the work on creating more and more labs to enhance the testing capacity and getting testing kits were found wanting and stuck in a bureaucratic approach.”
A state health department’s bulletin said of Madhya Pradesh 1,846 Covid-19 cases as of Friday, Indore alone accounted for 1,029, Bhopal 360, and Ujjain 102. The state has reported 92 Covid-19 related fatalities including 55 in Indore.
