The Heath Department in West Bengal, in a series of tweets on 19 April, alleged defective test kits supplied by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as one of the reasons behind delays in COVID-19 sample testing.

"The testing kits supplied by ICMR-NICED about two weeks ago have started to throw up a large number of 'inconclusive' results, necessitating a repeat/confirmatory test run, thereby causing a delay in the generation of the final test report," said the health department.