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Several employees from Indonesia’s state-owned pharmaceutical company Kimia Farma have been arrested for allegedly washing and reselling COVID-19 nasal swab test kits. According to the police, an estimated 9,000 passengers at the Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, might have been tested with such kits, which were washed and reused.
The use of nasal swab testing kits has become routine for many nations throughout the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. The same is the procedure at the Kualanamu airport, where passengers had to test negative in the naval swab test to board the flight, with an option for customers to be tested at the airport itself, using antigen rapid test kits supplied by Kimia Farma.
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Reused nose swabs: Indonesian firm faces lawsuit over Covid-19 test ‘fraud’ Aisyah Llewellyn in Medan, Indonesia llewellynaisyah@gmail.com Human rights lawyers in Medan, Kamal Pane (left) and Ranto Sibarani say they will sue Kimia Farma for compensation. Photo: Aisyah Llewellyn
A pair of Indonesian lawyers are planning to sue a state-owned pharmaceutical firm after it was discovered to have allegedly reused nasal swabs for coronavirus tests for thousands of people.
Last week, police arrested five workers at Kimia Farma, including its Medan business manager, who were accused of washing and repacking cotton swabs at the company s main office in the city, and then sending them to Kualanamu International Airport where they were used on unsuspecting travellers.
May 05, 2021
Human rights lawyers in Medan, Kamal Pane (left) and Ranto Sibarani say they will sue Kimia Farma for compensation.
South China Morning Post
A pair of Indonesian lawyers are planning to sue a state-owned pharmaceutical firm after it was discovered to have allegedly reused nasal swabs for coronavirus tests for thousands of people.
Last week, police arrested five workers at Kimia Farma, including its Medan business manager, who were accused of washing and repacking cotton swabs at the company’s main office in the city, and then sending them to Kualanamu International Airport where they were used on unsuspecting travellers.