China has issued an investigation on the coronavirus testing kit makers Bioeasy after research suggested that the information given by the test was not accurate enough.
Spain's capital stopped using the kit made by the Chinese company after pointing out the inaccuracy in the testing kits. The Chinese regulatory authority issued the investigation after the kit was recalled. Doubts rose after the number of confirmed cases rose to more than 50,000 in a matter of hours on Thursday, in Spain. The death toll on Thursday seemed to be around 4,089 on Thursday.
The Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC), one of Spain's leading research institutes said that the Chinese lab developed nose swabs had an accuracy rate of less than 30 percent. The local newspapers in Spain also reported that Madrid had decided to stop the use of the kits and the authorities have requested a replacement.
Bioeasy's statement on WeChat
The company said through the social media that the "nasopharyngeal swab samples might have been sampled and extracted and handled without strictly following the company's instructions, which reduced the accuracy." The company also added that they didn't communicate the instruction properly with the customers.
Spain had requested for 340,000 test kits from the company. The manager of the company declined to talk to the media by saying that he was unclear about the situation and hasn't read the reports from Spain.
The European country was told that the test kits by Bioeasy can produce results with 80 percent accuracy. But, this has not been in line with Spain's findings. The test needs to be conducted by taking samples from the nasopharynx, an area near the base of the skull which is then diluted and deposited with a test strip in a cartridge. This then would reveal whether the result is positive, negative or invalid. The results can be confirmed within 10 to 15 minutes.
Several experts said that the claim of 80 percent accuracy is known to be inaccurate. According to the Chinese embassy in Spain, the test kits were not approved by China's National Medical Products Administration, The supplies were not included in the medical supply sent by the government as well.
The tweet said that "Chinese Ministry of Commerce offered Spain a list of approved suppliers, in which Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology was not included." The embassy also said that the order has still not been shipped out of the country and the test kits in Spain were not made by Bioeasy. For the past month the company has been focusing on its coronavirus testing kits. They are primarily a company working on food safety and medical tests.
