Covid-19 Test Lapses At VSSUT: Pvt Firm Junks Odisha Govt's 'Faulty Kits' Claim

Sambalpur: In a fresh twist to the Covid-19 test lapses at Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) in Sambalpur, a private firm on Sunday claimed that the test kits supplied by it for detection of SARS-CoV2 were not defective.

The Delhi-based kit manufacturing company, Oscar Medicare Pvt Ltd, performed live demo of the kits in the presence of Sudarshan Pothal, nodal officer of Covid at VIMSAR, Burla and declared that the kits are fine and meet all the parameters as per ICMR and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) guidelines.

According to sources, the representatives of Oscar Medicare gave live demo experiment of rapid test kits batch No-CAG D-008 & D014 to Pothal at VIMSAR in the presence of other lab technicians.

#Covid19 test lapses at VSSUT in Burla: Testing kit manufacturing company Oscar Medicare performs live demo of the kits in presence of VIMSAR Covid nodal officer, claims the kits are fine #Odisha pic.twitter.com/bJ01FtWBHP

— OTV (@otvnews) March 7, 2021

Similarly, the authenticity of the kits was examined at ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar. Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples were collected from 60 health individuals and the tests were conducted at RMRC from March 3 to 5. All the test results came out negative, informed the Odisha State Medical Corporation Limited in a letter to the Superintendent of VIMSAR.

However, the clarification of the Oscar Medicare contradicted the claimed of additional chief secretary (Health) Pradipta Mohapatra who had maintained that 25 students of VSSUT were wrongly diagnosed Covid-19 positive due to faulty coronavirus testing kits.

Following the fiasco, the OSMC had issued show-cause notices to Oscar Medicare along with Alpine Biomedicals Private Limited who had supplied the kits to VIMSAR, Burla.

(Edited By Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty)