Lup alleges illegal sale of RAT kits
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, July 09 2021:
While expressing concern over the fact that the number of Covid-19 deaths in the state has crossed 1241 and around 75,180 infected cases, All Club Organisation Association and Meira Paibi Lup (ACOAM-Lup) has accused pharmacies and stockists of illegally retailing 'Only For Professional and Health Care Users' kit also known as Standard Q Covid-19 AG Test Kit, which is not approved by ICMR for personal use, in the black market.
In a statement released by its joint secretary Balakeshor, ACOAM-Lup Kangleipak said that the matter came to light when the Lup members went to purchase the kits on Thursday.
Questioning how the public could use the Rapid Antigent Test kit, it said that the probability of getting a false negative result is high from self-testing.
This could give a false sense of security and inadvertently lead to spread of the virus, not to mention of the discrepancies in government data due to non-reporting of positive cases.
Furthermore, people will not have the general idea of where to dispose the kits, which also will lead to spread of the virus.
"Despite the prolonged lockdown, the number of positive cases and deaths is yet to go down.
As such, shouldn't the pharmacies and stockists who are illegally retailing test kits be punished under Disaster Management Act, 2015? The central team assigned to assess the Covid-19 situation in the state has also recommended for strict action.
Any delay on launching crackdown on retailing of unqualified and unprofessional kits, which would be not recorded in government data, could potentially lead to more deaths", the Lup contended.
Stating that Manipur could emerge as a huge factory for illegal test kits sellers, ACOAM-Lup drew the attention of the chief minister and the department concerned on the matter.