CHENNAI: Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said on Monday that the state will return 24,000 rapid test kits as directed by ICMR. This means all procurement orders will be cancelled and the state will not have to spend on this.
Vijayabaskar said, “Tamil Nadu placed the order with Wondfo, a company that manufactures test kits, through a Shan Bio-Tech dealer. Each kit was purchased at Rs 600 (excluding GST). This was the price stipulated by the ICMR.”
Responding to allegations from the DMK that the State had ordered from the company which was not approved by the ICMR, the minister said that ICMR had given approval to buy from Wondfo. “Since the list will only have the name of the manufacturing company, Wondfo, and not that of the dealer and importer, it is wrong to say that the Shan Bio-Tech name is not there in the ICMR approved list. DMK leader MK Stalin should understand this, rather than go by some media reports,” the minister said.
Questioning the DMK’s timing of trading such charges, Vijayabaskar said, “These statements cannot discourage the government from taking measures on a war-footing to eradicate coronavirus. Equating the procurement with that of eroding the treasury is false propaganda. It is amusing to hear Stalin ask why Rs 600 was paid for a kit. Why are such questions being posed to a government working to save lives.”
Tamil Nadu has been procuring all medicines and equipment through a proper channel and that is why the State has been able to achieve 56.8 per cent recovery rate and maintain death rate at 1.2 per cent. The State had procured 24, 000 kits from China and received 12,000 kits from the Union Health Ministry and started using them in hotspots and high-risk contacts. Meanwhile, Stalin welcomed the judgment of the Delhi HC which ordered the procurement of rapid test kits not exceeding Rs 400 each.