China's Embassy in New Delhi has advised the Indian government to "Choose products certified by Chinese regulatory authorities and with production qualifications when importing relevant products" after reports emerged that thousands of PPE kits had failed quality checks.
The embassy, in a statement issued on Thursday evening, said that China attaches great importance to the export of medical products and that it has introduced stricter regulatory measures to meet the required quality standards of the importing country or region.
“Some countries including India raised their purchasing demands through diplomatic channels, and we recommend qualified companies. We hope that foreign buyers can choose products certified by Chinese regulatory authorities and with production qualifications when importing relevant products”, the statement issued by the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi reads.
As per sources in the government, at least 50,000 of the 170,000 PPE kits India has received from China failed the checks. Government sources in New Delhi claimed that it will return the entire batches of PPE kits that failed quality checks.
In order to test the kits at a quicker pace before getting them into use and expediting the testing of COVID-19, the country’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) shifted testing facilities from Gwalior to New Delhi on Thursday.
The Indian government has been expediting COVID-19 tests across the country to curb the spread of the pandemic in the nation. Nevertheless, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has claimed that for each positive case, the country tests 24 people, which is much better in comparison to other nations.
"In countries like Japan, one out of 11.7 tests turns out to be positive, which is among the highest in the world. Italy tests 6.7 persons for one positive test while the USA tests 5.3 persons and the United Kingdom 3.4", Raman R. Gangakhedkar, a scientist at the ICMR, said on Thursday, while emphasising that India has a huge population and that not all people belong to vulnerable groups.
According to the federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the country has reported 12,759 people as the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, while as many as 420 people have lost their lives due to the virus and 1,514 people have recovered from the disease.