Govt yet to receive Gonoshasthaya’s Covid-19 test kits
The kits were handed over to representatives of the CDC, who will hand them over to the Director General of Drug Administration today
The Gonoshasthaya Kendra could not hand over its"GR Covid-19 Dot Blot" testing kits to the government on Saturday as no public officials were present in the formal handover ceremony.
The organisation, however, handed over the kits to representatives of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who attended the event held at Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital at Dhanmondi in the capital.
The Gonoshasthaya representatives will hand over the kits to the Director General of Drug Administration today.
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"Despite invitation, no government officials attended the programme," said Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, founder and trustee of Gonoshasthaya Kendra. "We will deliver the kits to all government offices concerned [for approval] tomorrow (April 26)," he added.
Dr Muhib Ullah Khandaker, the GR Covid-19 Dot Blot project coordinator, said they expected the government to give final approval within the shortest possible time after issuance of the kits.
"We have made around 200 internal validation tests and this kit was able to detect coronavirus in 100 percent of the cases," he said, adding, "This kit can detect coronavirus in 15 minutes."
A batch of kits supposed to be submitted on April 20 was damaged due to technical difficulties at the lab caused by an electrical fault.
"As a result, the whole batch had to be made anew, and this batch is more improved," Dr Muhib added.
The Gonoshasthaya Kendra lab where the kits are currently being produced is semi-automatic. This lab can produce 1 lakh kits per month. However, an initiative to establish full automation for kit production is in progress.
