Spanish health authorities have warned that the coronavirus tests that the country purchased from China are faulty. They are not consistently detecting positive cases, thereby showing an accuracy level below 30 per cent, making them unusable.
In view of the incredibly high error rate of the kits, Spain-- one of the worst-hit by Covid-19, with deaths surpassing over 4,000-- has announced that it is sending back the first batch of Covid-19 testing kits that it received from China.
The Chinese Embassy in Spain was quick to respond, explaining that the batch of faulty kits was not part of the 423-million Euro deal that the two countries recently signed, which includes 5.5 million testing kits. The Embassy said, the kits had come from an unlicensed provider.
"They do not detect the positive cases as expected," a source working at a Spanish microbiology lab told El Pais, a Madrid-based Spanish daily.
Spain had ordered 340,000 kits from the company.
