Meditest, Checkup Medical Suspended For Issuing Fake Covid-19 Test Results

The Ministry of Health suspended two accredited COVID-19 testing labs after it emerged that a majority of doctored results came from them.

An investigation by the ministry that sought to restore the country’s image internationally has seen government resorting to taking up testing of passengers seeking to depart from the country.

Fake COVID-19 certificates was cited as one of the reasons that Dubai banned all inbound and transit passenger flights from Kenya.

It has been weeks of investigations into a racket where some Ministry of Health officials and private labs colluded with travelers to issue fake COVID-19 results to aid travel to Dubai.

The suspension by the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority is alleged to have been necessitated by a large number of passengers from Kenya with negative COVID-19 certificates but testing positive in Dubai.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority boss Gilbert Kibe has been quoted saying that in just a single day, Dubai could detect upto 20 false COVID-19 negative tests from Kenya.

But the last nail on the coffin for Kenya was when health officials in Dubai detected upto 73 cases of COVID-19 results that were fake.

The ministry has now suspended 2 accredited COVID-19 testing labs after investigations established majority of the fake results came from Checkup Medical and Meditest.

The two including other private companies that have been handling PCR tests at airports have now been banned from doing so.

The Ministry of Health now says COVID-19 testing and issuance of certificates to those wishing to travel will be done by government facilities; a move that is expected to restore the country’s image internationally.

There have also been concerns over testing kits used to detect COVID-19 more so the Omicron variant. The government says, all testing kits will be re-approved to ensure they are not faulty.