Indonesia: At least 9,000 people swabbed with reused test kits at KNIA

[Madam Margolyes 7,783]

Police have arrested employees at a Kimia Farma lab located at Kualanamu International Airport (KNIA) in North Sumatra, who allegedly reused antigen rapid test kits on customers to cut costs.

The North Sumatra Police said it sent an undercover officer to take a rapid antigen test at the lab following complaints from passengers over the past week that they received false positive results from the lab.

An undercover cop signed up for the antigen rapid test and had his samples taken with a nasal swab. Some 10 minutes later, the lab presented a positive test result for the cop.

Sensing something was amiss, police officers then raided the lab and gathered its staff, during which they found hundreds of used swab test kits that were going to be prepared for reuse. 

The police then arrested at least five lab workers and confiscated a number of items as evidence, including the antigen swab test kits in question. 

North Sumatra Police Chief RZ Panca Putra Simanjuntak told reporters that the suspects have been reusing test kits to cut costs since December 2020, and police estimated that they pocketed around IDR1.8 billion (US$124,552) for themselves. The suspects allegedly washed and cleaned used cotton swabs ⁠— which are supposed to be discarded after use ⁠— and repackaged them for reuse at the airport lab.

“In one day, there were between 100 to 200 passengers who took the swab test. If we count just 100 people, multiply by 90 days, that’s already 9,000 people,” Panca said. 

Police have not determined whether or not the reused cotton swabs transmitted COVID-19 or any other diseases between the 9,000 victims.

https://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/indonesian-lab-workers-arrested-as-police-find-reused-test-kits/

https://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/at-least-9000-people-swabbed-with-reused-test-kits-at-kualanamu-airport-police/

[GagaSine 7,464]

Jesus christ 

[Mister G 10,512]

Wtf?! Cutting costs at the expense of getting lord knows how many people exposed to COVID and quite possibly anything else. 

[Lona Delery 7,227]

yikes corona aside, imagine getting someone else's nose juice inserted

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

That is so disgusting! 

[papergangstas 1,364]

nothing surprises me anymore in this world 

[Charles Leclerc 171]

What’s wrong with people 

[PartySick 172,536]

Not Gaga being ahead of her time writing Partynauseous 

[venuspop 807]

43 minutes ago, Lona Delery said:

yikes corona aside, imagine getting someone else's nose juice inserted

omg pls this comment made me gag a bit 

[pachinko 10,753]

I can't believe this.  Why?!