Didn’t purchase any rapid antigen test kits: Govt.

The government today rejected the reports that it had purchased rapid antigen test kits for COVID-19 testing from a private company. State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals, Channa Jayasumana, said the government had only requested the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the test kits. “The government has not purchased any rapid antigen test kits from any company as of yet. We have only requested the WHO for these tests. Accordingly, the WHO released 50,000 test kits which we should receive today. We expect to use them as soon as possible,”he said in response to queries by journalists. When asked about the concerns raised by some of the local health officials over the accuracy of the tests, the State Minister said it was the WHO that gave the recommendation to use the rapid antigen tests. “They are being produced by a company approved by the WHO. However, we are doing an additional test to see if the tests suit to Sri Lanka. But other countries have used them without such a special test and purely based on the WHO recommendation,” he said. Responding to questions about a private company bringing down the test kits, the State Minister said, “If they have done that, the test kits have been imported under the National Medicines Regulatory Authority’s (NMRA) approval for the use of private sector hospitals and not for the government. The NMRA has called for tenders and the process has not been finalized yet.”