DOH apologizes, says China COVID-19 test kits at par with WHO kits

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) apologized Sunday for mistakenly saying that the test kits from China registered inaccurate results.

In a statement, DOH clarified that the test kits donated by the Chinese government were at par with those from the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The Department of Health wishes to clarify that the initial 2,000 BGI RT-PCR test kits and the 100,000 Sansure RT-PCR test kits donated by the Chinese government have been assessed by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine to be at par with the test kits provided by the World Health Organization after parallel testing was done,” it said.

“The DOH apologizes for any confusion that previously issued statements have caused,” it added.

DOH said the test kits which registered low accuracy were of another brand.

“The test kits mentioned during the press briefing by the department last 28 March 2020 referred to another brand of test kit that was proposed to be donated by a private foundation,” DOH said.

DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said the test kits donated by the Chinese government only show 40 percent accuracy.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila, however, denied that the test kits with low accuracy came from its government.

/MUF