Indonesian Pharmaceutical Firm Busted for Reusing Old COVID-19 Nasal Swab Tests
Staffers at an international pharmacy firm have been arrested by authorities after they were discovered allegedly reusing COVID-19 nasal swab tests on unknowing patients.
According to a report from The BBC, five employees were placed under arrest in Indonesia for their COVID testing scam in which they gave patients used nasal swabs to test for the virus before boarding flights. Their horrifying scheme may have endangered 9,000 travelers and earned them $125,000 over the last five months.
Kimia Farma, a state-owned pharmaceutical firm based in Jakarta, reportedly targeted the Kualanamu airport in Medan, North Sumatra. According to an investigation from The Guardian, pharmacy technicians have allegedly washed used cotton swabs with alcohol, repackaged them and resent them to the airport for another round of testing since December 2020.
Passengers must produce a negative COVID test in order to fly per state mandate. They can either take a rapid test at the airport or get tested beforehand at another facility.
According to The BBC, local law enforcement was flagged about the potential fraud after passengers who opted to take the Kimia Farma test in the airport complained they were given false-positive results. Investigators found used tests during a subsequent raid.
Authorities believe that the $124,800 profit was used to build a lavish home for one of the suspects, The BBC reported.
Two victims at the airport, Ranto Sibarani and Kamal Pane, explained to The South China Morning News that they traveled frequently from December to February for their jobs. As practicing human rights attorneys, they have since filed a lawsuit against Kimia Farma for violating local health laws and failing to protect passengers.
"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," Sibarani told the outlet.
"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.
Having taken approximately 10 tests for his flights over the course of a few months, Sibarani told The South China Morning News that he feels "violated through my nose" and that he is "the victim of serious fraud."
An anonymous airport official spoke to the outlet and claimed that administrators were unaware of the fraudulent tests.
"We had no idea this was happening and can't believe anyone would do such a thing," he said. "The airlines trusted Kualanamu airport to facilitate these tests, but this incident was out of our control."
They are now transitioning to work with other rapid test vendors, the outlet confirmed.
This is not the first time passengers have complained about fraudulent COVID tests available at the airport. In February, a Ghanaian woman claimed her local airport gave her fake COVID test results that would permit her to fly, thus endangering other passengers.
