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.
Clintons agree to testify after House threatens contempt in Jeffrey Epstein probe
LAPD Chief Refuses to Enforce Gavin Newsom’s Crackdown on ICE Agents: ‘It Doesn’t Make Any Sense’
House GOP majority shrinks to just one vote as Johnson swears in new House Democrat
Trump and India PM Modi Reach Historic Trade Agreement, Includes Ending Importation of Russian Oil
Grammys blasted as ‘anti-China political tool’ after Dalai Lama wins audiobook award
House Democrat Appears Hundreds of Times in New Epstein Documents
Trump raises ‘nationalized voting’ idea in Bongino’s return podcast debut
FLASHBACK VIDEO: The Barack Obama Video That Anti-ICE Dems Want Buried Forever and That Trump Should Run on TV 24/7
Matt Mahan sets himself apart from crowded California field by criticizing Newsom
Trump ‘ask us’ doctrine explained as protests rage in far left states
White House fires back at critics calling Trump’s massive arch ‘too big’
Judge dismisses DOJ judicial misconduct complaint against James Boasberg
Schumer nukes GOP push for ‘Jim Crow-era’ voter ID laws in Trump-backed shutdown package
Celebrities Try to Lecture Americans with Flood of Anti-ICE Virtue Signalling at Grammys
Turning Point USA launches rival halftime show with star-studded lineup as NFL faces Super Bowl backlash
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.
Clintons agree to testify after House threatens contempt in Jeffrey Epstein probe
LAPD Chief Refuses to Enforce Gavin Newsom’s Crackdown on ICE Agents: ‘It Doesn’t Make Any Sense’
House GOP majority shrinks to just one vote as Johnson swears in new House Democrat
Trump and India PM Modi Reach Historic Trade Agreement, Includes Ending Importation of Russian Oil
Grammys blasted as ‘anti-China political tool’ after Dalai Lama wins audiobook award
House Democrat Appears Hundreds of Times in New Epstein Documents
Trump raises ‘nationalized voting’ idea in Bongino’s return podcast debut
FLASHBACK VIDEO: The Barack Obama Video That Anti-ICE Dems Want Buried Forever and That Trump Should Run on TV 24/7
Matt Mahan sets himself apart from crowded California field by criticizing Newsom
Trump ‘ask us’ doctrine explained as protests rage in far left states
White House fires back at critics calling Trump’s massive arch ‘too big’
Judge dismisses DOJ judicial misconduct complaint against James Boasberg
Schumer nukes GOP push for ‘Jim Crow-era’ voter ID laws in Trump-backed shutdown package
Celebrities Try to Lecture Americans with Flood of Anti-ICE Virtue Signalling at Grammys
Turning Point USA launches rival halftime show with star-studded lineup as NFL faces Super Bowl backlash
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.
