COVID pandemic has created obstacles for almost all operations. To continue working, traveling, or basically anything in life, we need to get our covid tests done and hope for a negative result. But getting tested is so scary considering the options are nasal swabs and oral swabs only.
Nasal Swabs
But isn’t it scarier to know that the nasal swab that the professionals use to test you was actually reused?
Well, it happened in Indonesia. This pharmaceutical company by the name of Kimia Farma in Indonesia has been blamed for reusing nasal swabs on people who come to get their COVID status tested. Imagine, someone’s nasal fluids in your nasal pathway.
After this allegation was made, several employees were arrested.
More than 9000 affected
But how many could have fallen prey to this atrocity? It is suspected that at least 9,000 passengers in the airport at Medan were tested with reused swabs.
The company might face a lawsuit for this crime because it did not happen accidentally. The swabs were systematically washed to be reused further. The scam has been in operation since December 2020. Some people had noticed that they were getting a false positive. To get to the depth of this, an undercover policeman was sent to investigate. He pretended to be a traveler and was swabbed for COVID through a nasal swab. He got a positive result.
The rest of the officers swooped in at that moment and found a recycled used test kit.
They now stand accused of breaking health and consumer laws.
Lawsuit around the corner
What is even more ruthless is that it is being suspected that one of the employees used the profits in the construction of a lavish house. Kimia has since then fired those employees who may have been involved in this scam and promised to be more careful in the future. Meanwhile, lawyers have started rolling in preparing for a lawsuit.
They are expecting to get 1bn Indonesian Rupiah for each affected passenger.
Stay tuned to Brandsynario for the latest news and updates!
