Five people have been arrested in Indonesia for “recycling” Covid-19 test kits, not only compromising patients’ safety but also complicating government efforts to control the pandemic.
AS positive cases soar due to new coronavirus variants and as countries across the globe try to salvage their respective economies, authorities battle against time to contain its rapid spread by testing anyone who might be in contact or in need.
However, in Indonesia, a controversy has tainted these efforts.
About 9,000 passengers at an airport in the city of Medan in Northern Sumatra may have been deliberately tested by an Indonesian pharmaceutical company using a recycled swab sticks, said local police.
According to authorities, they have arrested five employees of the state-owned Kimi Farma for allegedly washing and reselling utilized SARS-CoV-2 nasal swab test kits.
Moreover, they believe that the con had been happening as early as December 2020.
As per government protocol, people travelling need to undergo Covid-19 testing and yield negative results before being allowed to board their flights.
As a choice, passengers can have the procedure done at the airport.
A Kualanamu International Airport official told the South China Morning Post that they had no idea such scheme was happening but said the incident was beyond their control, while Kimia Farma promised to address the issue with diligence.
The activities of the apprehended individuals were busted when an undercover police officer underwent testing in the site and turned out to have false positive results.
The officer has prior test and afterwards tested negative from the virus.
Two lawyers working on behalf of the victims are already planning to sue the firm and aims to get a compensation of 1 billion rupiah [P3 million] for each passenger affected.
‘Awful experience’
“It was an awful experience because they did the tests far too deeply and insisted on swabbing my nose several times during a sitting, to the point I complained that the procedure was not being conducted professionally,” passenger Ranto Sibarani said.
Sibarani, who frequently had several official travels from Medan to Jakarta since December 2020, said he recalls to have taken more than 10 tests.
“Now, with the benefit of hindsight, I suspect the reason for having to swab my nose multiple times and do the test so deeply was because they were using rewashed, second-hand swabs which made the procedure more difficult,” he added.
“I feel that I am the victim of serious fraud and that I was violated through my nose.”
As of May 5, Indonesia has recorded over 1.7 million Covid-19 cases and more than 46,000 deaths.
Local authorities have also identified two cases of the Indian variant in the country which is among the hardest-struck by the virus in Asia.(JT)
Tags: #Indonesia, #Covid19, #Covid19test, #recycling