No confirmation on arrival of 50,000 test kits yet, TN officials say US, Europe on priority list

The consignment of 50,000 kits was initially expected on Friday, but now there is no concrete confirmation on its arrival. Like Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai are also waiting for the kits.

A senior official confirmed to DT Next that the Centre, though clearing the export drugs for corona treatment was doing very little to get foreign medical imports. According to sources, the Chinese companies and its Customs Department are giving more priority to the US and European countries where political pressure and mortality are high.

As a result, the consignment for all Asian countries is getting delayed. “We are in touch with the aviation sector dealing with medical cargoes. The cargo movement from China to Europe and US is more, when compared to Asia,” a source said. Chennai Customs sources confirmed that there were only two cargo-related operations in Chennai on Saturday. On the cargo front, 101 bags for export were cleared on priority basis including food items, food supplements product for the UK. On the import front, 135 shipments were cleared on priority including one shipment of disposable masks imported from China, but no consignment has reached the airport or seaport with rapid test kits, sources said.

“We are waiting for the past two days, but there is no update on rapid test consignment from China. The consignment will either directly land in Chennai or it will be a transit via Delhi or Mumbai,” the source said. Addressing a press conference, Chief Secretary K Shanmugam admitted that the consignment of rapid kits was getting delayed. “We have placed orders with the Centre seeking one lakh kits and another four lakh kits have also been asked for and we are waiting. Besides, the Chennai corporation had also placed a direct order of 50,000 rapid test kits for mass screening,” the top official said. The CS also that the CM is considering the government footing the cost of coronavirus diagnostic tests at private hospitals.

The state has about 29,000 COVID19 patient isolation beds and a group of officials are looking at the infrastructure facilities available across TN to enhance bed strength to treat up to three lakh corona patients, the CS claimed.

“Meetings to dispatch the rapid test kits for each district was already conducted on Thursday and Friday, but we have no idea when the kits will reach us. In fact, we need them immediately to check some of our doctors and nurses who are serving in the COVID wards,” said a government assistant resident medical officer.