Microbiology experts in Spain have said that rapid coronavirus tests that the country bought from China are not consistently detecting positive cases.
The error was discovered as Spain is in the grip of one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world, second only to Italy in the number of reported deaths.
Studies on the tests done in Spain found that they had only 30% sensitivity, meaning they correctly identify people with the virus only 30% of the time, sources told the Spanish newspaper El País.
Those sources told the newspaper that the tests should have a sensitivity of more than 80%. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says rapid tests for influenza are required to have 80% sensitivity.
Rapid tests can get a result in minutes but are generally less accurate than other tests. Numerous companies around the world are producing them.
Breaking: Musk’s SpaceX Catches Its Own Starship Falling Back to Earth in Historic First
Officials Shocked as Tanker-Cruiser Crash Ends in ‘Literal Miracle on the Mississippi’ with No Fatalities
Dem Hecklers Scream ‘Traitor’ at Hakeem Jeffries for Not Impeaching Trump Fast Enough as He Gears Up to Become House Speaker
Johnny Depp Defeats Cancel Culture as ‘Ebenezer’ Storms to Number 1 in Triumphant Box Office Return
‘We Know It’s a Bomb’: Peoria Orders Immediate 1-Mile Evacuation After Device Found at Ethanol Plant
Hamas Faces Down Its Own Massacre as Eric Trump-Backed Company Mulls Deploying 1,000 Robot Soldiers in Gaza Terror Tunnels
FN4220H8 title
FN4220H7 title
At least 100 people pulled from Mississippi River after New Orleans ship crash as lengthy salvage effort looms
Investors push for Jensen Huang to be reinstated as Nvidia CEO after affair with suspected spy
Minneapolis ‘Clan Violence’ Targets Scholar Who Exposed Ilhan Omar’s Father as Colonel in Bloody Regime, Forces Him to Cancel Visit: Report
Mamdani Vowed for Accountability in Catastrophic Building Collapse That Killed 8 – New Report Points the Finger at His Own Admin
Justice Alito warns America must preserve 3 core principles regardless of country’s ‘atmosphere’
White House lawyer’s hardball warning to Dems has legal experts on both sides questioning one key threat
Dems seize on midterm rout to demand ICE reform but polls reveal a twist in who prioritized immigration
The studies prompted the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology to formally recommend not using these tests, El País reported. Health workers are now meant to use other tests that take longer to give a result.
Fernando Simón, the director of Spain’s health-emergencies coordination center, said on Thursday that Spain checked 9,000 of the tests, found that their results were not consistent enough, and decided to return them.
Spain’s health ministry confirmed the results of the studies into the tests to El País, with a spokesman saying the Carlos III Health Institute, a public-health institute that reports to the government, “detected a sensitivity that does not correspond to what is established in the technical sheet.”
The spokesman said that the institute had recalled a shipment of the tests sent to Madrid. New tests approved by the government will be rolled out instead, he said.
The tests were being used in the regions of Andalusia and Galicia, and they were first used in the Madrid region on Wednesday.
Delays from implementing the new test will further harm Spain’s efforts to contain the virus, which had killed more than 4,000 people in the country as of early Thursday.
The tests were made by a Chinese biotechnology company called Bioeasy, El País reported. Other countries, including Georgia, have bought the company’s tests.
Breaking: Musk’s SpaceX Catches Its Own Starship Falling Back to Earth in Historic First
Officials Shocked as Tanker-Cruiser Crash Ends in ‘Literal Miracle on the Mississippi’ with No Fatalities
Dem Hecklers Scream ‘Traitor’ at Hakeem Jeffries for Not Impeaching Trump Fast Enough as He Gears Up to Become House Speaker
Johnny Depp Defeats Cancel Culture as ‘Ebenezer’ Storms to Number 1 in Triumphant Box Office Return
‘We Know It’s a Bomb’: Peoria Orders Immediate 1-Mile Evacuation After Device Found at Ethanol Plant
Hamas Faces Down Its Own Massacre as Eric Trump-Backed Company Mulls Deploying 1,000 Robot Soldiers in Gaza Terror Tunnels
FN4220H8 title
FN4220H7 title
At least 100 people pulled from Mississippi River after New Orleans ship crash as lengthy salvage effort looms
Investors push for Jensen Huang to be reinstated as Nvidia CEO after affair with suspected spy
Minneapolis ‘Clan Violence’ Targets Scholar Who Exposed Ilhan Omar’s Father as Colonel in Bloody Regime, Forces Him to Cancel Visit: Report
Mamdani Vowed for Accountability in Catastrophic Building Collapse That Killed 8 – New Report Points the Finger at His Own Admin
Justice Alito warns America must preserve 3 core principles regardless of country’s ‘atmosphere’
White House lawyer’s hardball warning to Dems has legal experts on both sides questioning one key threat
Dems seize on midterm rout to demand ICE reform but polls reveal a twist in who prioritized immigration
The Chinese Embassy in Spain said on Twitter on Thursday that the medical supplies China was donating to other countries did not include Bioeasy products.
It said that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce gave Spain a list of manufacturers and that Bioeasy was not among them, adding that it had not been given a license from China’s National Medical Products Administration to sell its products.
On Monday, Spain said it received 640,000 rapid testing kits from China and South Korea; it is unclear how many were manufactured by Bioeasy.
Medical professionals in the Czech Republic have also said that rapid tests from China were not working properly, but it was not clear whether these tests were also made by Bioeasy.
Spain has been ravaged by the virus outbreak that originated in China at the end of 2019. Spain’s cases have climbed to more than 56,000, the fourth-highest in the world, behind China, Italy, and the US.
As the outbreak has slowed in China — which has frequently reported no new daily domestic cases — the country has sent medical workers and donated medical equipment such as masks and tests to other countries.
Story cited here.
