Chinese Embassy disputes DOH on inaccurate test kits

MANILA, Philippines — Two batches of test kits donated by China meet World Health Organization (WHO) standards, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said on Sunday morning.

The Chinese Embassy said that this was confirmed in an exchange it had with the Department of Health (DOH) clarifying its earlier claims, where the department confirmed that "the two batches of 2,000 BGI PCR-type test kits and 100,000 Sansure PCR-type test kits donated by the Chinese government" were of the same standard as kits provided by the WHO. 

The DOH has yet to comment on China's statement.

On Saturday night, the DOH in an online press briefing said that test kits donated by China were only 40% accurate and were thus set aside as they did not meet WHO standards. 

It is not clear which batch of test kits the health department was referring to in its statement, nor did Vergeire mention how many were inaccurate. 

READ: DOH sets aside inaccurate donated test kits, assures public only quality tests are used

"Among the first test kits donated to us by China that only showed 40% accuracy, we did not use them because the accuracy rate was low," Department of Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire Vergeire said in Filipino in an online press briefing Saturday night. 

"That's why we only opted to store them away."

In response, the Chinese Embassy in its statement said, "those [two] test kits are of high quality and standards and have no accuracy problems, which are being used in Philippine test laboratories and have helped accelerate the testing process."

"The test kits mentioned by the DOH official on 28 March 2020 during the press briefing were neither tested by [the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine] which did not receive any kit sample for lab validation nor donated by the Chinese government," it added. 

Spain experienced similar troubles with China-donated testing kits; in response, Shenzhen Bioeasy—the group supplying the kits to Spain—said that the hospitals could be collecting samples the wrong way. 

The Chinese Embassy tagged similar claims as attempts to sabotage and subvert Beijing's assistance during the COVID-19 crisis. 

"At this moment of crisis, we should fight in solidarity to overcome the epidemic at the earliest date," their statement read.  

"The Chinese Embassy firmly rejects any irresponsible remarks and any attempts to undermine our cooperation in this regard." — Franco Luna