UW recalls faulty coronavirus test kits
www.kiro7.com/news/local/department-health-recalls-thousands-coronavirus-test-kits-due-possible-contamination/ZWTOK6B3LNGLTID2GZP4GMFBCI/
SEATTLE — Hundreds of coronavirus test kits UW Medicine ordered from China turned out to be contaminated.
The kits were part of a more than $100,000 shipment the University of Washington bought and donated to state and county labs.
But a small percentage of tests wasn't usable.
The coronavirus test kits were ordered by the interim chairman of the UW Medical Lab Department.
He hoped they would help close the testing gap being felt here and all over the country.
"We reached out to this company in China and received these a few weeks ago."
And for a moment, it looked like Dr. Geoffrey Baird had scored.
He found a connection to a company in Shanghai where he could get thousands of coronavirus test kits.
It would cost the University of Washington a cool $125,000. But he could share them across the state and get his lab working at full capacity.
Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene's congressional district includes the Life Care Center of Kirkland, once the nation's epicenter for deadly COVID-19.
"As states look for product like Washington," she said, "unfortunately, we're seeing product that has come in that hasn't met the standards that we need to meet."
She says the flawed kits Dr. Baird bought reflect the almost epic struggle to access coronavirus test kits.
"This is why it's so important that we have a federal response," she said, "because right now states are trying to figure out on their own, sometimes competing with each other."
>University of Washington Medicine buys cheap [bad] testing kits from China
>State Rep now claims Federal Government must step in