China supplies faulty COVID-19 testing kits to European countries -

Madrid/Ankara: Spain, Czech Republic, Georgia and Turkey have alleged that the Chinese equipment, worth millions of dollars the state had provided to its allies as a medical aid for testing the Coronavirus, was faulty. The countries have alleged that the Chinese testing kits were of inferior quality. Allegations are rife that China was making hay while the Coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc across the globe.

All the countries in the world are trying for an accurate diagnosis of the new Coronavirus. Only a few countries have succeeded in developing kits for proper preliminary testing of the Coronavirus which include China, India, South Korea, Japan and the United States. Apart from China, none of these countries has started the export of the testing kits on a mass scale. The global market, therefore, appears to have opened for China.

Some of the European countries, which were hard-hit due to the Coronavirus, had signed agreements worth millions of dollars for purchasing testing kits from China. The countries include China’s EU allies such as Spain, the Czech Republic, Georgia and Turkey. China supplied 450,000 kits to Spain while the Czech Republic purchased more than a hundred thousand kits. On the other hand, the number of kits Georgia and Turkey purchased from China is unknown.

However, only about 20 to 30% of the kits China had exported can diagnose the Coronavirus patients correctly. Therefore, Spain, Czech Republic, Georgia and Turkey have criticised that nearly 70%-80% kits are faulty. The countries also alleged that the kits were of inferior quality and they have returned the kits to China.

China tried to dodge the allegations the European countries had levelled. China tried to absolve itself by saying that the concerned medical officers may not have followed the correct methodology of using the kits. On the contrary, China even tried to shrug responsibility for the matter by stating that the company that had supplied kits to Spain was never issued a license for it. Meanwhile, China is facing serious allegations and being blamed for the spread of the Coronavirus across the globe. Now, the Chinese image has been further maligned with the accusations of supplying faulty testing kits for the new Coronavirus.