Georgia has annulled its contract with Chinese company Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology to procure 200,000 rapid tests for COVID-19 due to their poor quality, Georgian Minister of Health Ekaterine Tikaradze said on Friday, a day after Spain said thousands of tests it received for the company were faulty
TBILISI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th March, 2020) Georgia has annulled its contract with Chinese company Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology to procure 200,000 rapid tests for COVID-19 due to their poor quality, Georgian Minister of Health Ekaterine Tikaradze said on Friday, a day after Spain said thousands of tests it received for the company were faulty.
On Monday, the Georgian government signed a contract with Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology to procure 200,000 rapid tests like the ones the Chinese company had earlier sold to Spain. On Thursday, the Spanish Health Ministry returned 9,000 Bioeasy tests, claiming that they were faulty. It turned out these tests were not licensed, according to the Chinese government.
"Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology is a very responsible company, that is why it has issued a notice and called back its products from all markets where they were sold. Georgia had a contract with this company, but the contract has been annulled and we have no more tests of this company today," Tikaradze said at a briefing.
She said Tbilisi was now in talks with another Chinese company that would send a pilot batch of 2,000 tests. According to the minister, all imported tests are thoroughly examined before being used in Georgia.
Georgia has so far reported 81 coronavirus infection cases. Last Saturday, the authorities declared a month-long state of emergency to contain the spread of COVID-19.
