A staff checks the nucleic acid test kit at the plant of Luoyang Ascend Biotechnology Co., Ltd in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, March 4, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

Demand for made-in-China COVID-19 test kits has surged as countries around the world conduct large-scale nucleic acid and antibody screening to bring the deadly virus in check, pushing domestic companies to increase production capacity. 

Experts also clarified that made-in-China test kits, whether nucleic acid or antibody tests, have high accuracy rates of 80 or even 90 percent, refuting doubts by some overseas media about the accuracy of made-in-China test kits. 

Guo Xiaoling, marketing manager at Shanghai-based coronavirus testkits manufacturer BioGerm Medical Biotechnology Co, told the Global Times that recent popularization of COVID-19 self-testing has led to an increase in domestic and export orders for the company's kits. 

"We have expanded our production capacity from 150,000-200,000 kits per day to about 300,000 to fill the surging orders," she told the Global Times.

She added that BioGerm's coronavirus testing kits have recently obtained a market access permit in Brazil and might soon be shipped there, though exports only account for a tiny portion of the company's sales. 

A representative at Sansure Biotech, a maker of test kits based in Central China's Hunan Province, told the Global Times that export and domestic orders have increased, though he declined to give the actual numbers. 

Sansure's kits have been exported to more than 80 countries and regions, and the company has received urgent orders from dozens of markets, including France, Italy and Spain.

Genomics giant BGI has also received tens of millions of export orders for coronavirus test kits, with products being shipped to more than 80 countries and regions including Japan, Thailand and Egypt, according to a statement the company sent to the Global Times on Thursday. 

Orders are rising as many governments, including China, carry out large-scale coronavirus and antibody screening of their citizens. 

AliHealth, the health arm of Alibaba Group, rolled out online coronavirus testing reservation services on Thursday that cover nearly 70 cities in China. The launch led to a surge in COVID-19 test consultations, particularly in large cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou, where work and school resumption are being strongly pushed, Alibaba noted in a press release. 

Another Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo is working with domestic institutions including BGI to launch coronavirus testing reservation services in nearly 50 cities in China. 

Large-scale testing is also progressing overseas. Germany, for example, is reportedly testing more than 50,000 people a day with help from its wealth of private laboratories. Other Western countries like the UK, France and Spain are ramping up testing despite their supply bottlenecks, according to media reports.

Lü Mengtao, a veteran in the medical equipment industry, said that it's necessary for other countries to import test kits from China, considering their urgent need and China's large manufacturing capacity.

So far, 29 types of coronavirus test kits offered by 25 Chinese companies have been approved with a total daily production capacity of 5 million. Production is basically normal and inventories are relatively adequate, according to Huang Libin, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. 

Experts also clarified that the accuracy of China's coronavirus test kits has no problems, though some overseas media reports have said that made-in-China kits have low accuracy rates.

"Currently, made-in-China testing kits, whether for nucleic acid or antibodies, have an accuracy rate of 80 or even 90 percent. The technology is not very difficult, and Chinese companies don't differ much from overseas makers in manufacturing techniques," Lü told the Global Times, adding that some overseas users might not have used the kits correctly. 


Newspaper headline: Virus test kit orders surging