A worrying shortage of Covid-19 testing kits

We are concerned to learn that some of the laboratories in the country had to suspend conducting Covid-19 tests while many are not being able to conduct the tests as per their capacity due to a shortage of testing kits. According to our report, the 300-bed government hospital in Narayanganj is one of the facilities where testing remained suspended since June 18, amid a severe kit crisis. An assistant professor of a hospital in Gazipur told The Daily Star that while they were supposed to test 188 samples a day, the number came down to 70 to 80 due to the kit crisis. Kit shortage has also been reported in Gazipur, Noakhali, Feni, Laxmipur, Jamalpur and even in some private hospitals in Dhaka.

It is common knowledge that Bangladesh's testing capacity is still extremely insufficient for its population. The country remains at the bottom among the South Asian countries in terms of the number of tests being conducted. According to health experts, the government has managed to test only about one out of every 250 people, which is inadequate to get a conclusive picture of the real Covid-19 situation on the ground. While we should conduct at least 20,000 tests per day and gradually try to take the number to 50,000, unfortunately, the number of daily tests still hovers around 15,000-17,000. And now we are even unable to conduct the minimum number of tests due to the kit crisis.

The director general of DGHS, however, has said that there is no kit crisis in the country and that they have one lakh and two thousand kits in store and more kits will come soon. If that is really the case, why don't they provide enough kits to the labs so they can test as per their capacity? Also, the government must keep at least two lakh kits in reserve as the supply chain could be disrupted any time, as public health professionals have opined. Besides, the government should look for other markets from where it can import kits. The allegations made by a ruling party lawmaker about a syndicate obstructing the companies, who have brought around 10 lakh testing kits, from supplying kits to the health ministry should be investigated immediately.

Since the shortage of testing kits could be a major setback for containing the spread of the virus, the government should take every step necessary to ensure smooth supply of them to all the hospitals and labs.