Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has cautioned Kenyans against going for COVID-19 testing in private run laboratories and testing centers.
Kagwe in particular cited the now controversial Lancet laboratories which have been put on spot over irregularities in its COVID-19 testing results.
The warning comes barely days after 17 staffers at Nakuru based St. Andrews Turi international school who had tested positive for COVID-19,tested negative following a retesting done at the Kenya Medical and Research Institute (KEMRI) laboratory.
The 17 had initially been tested at the Lancet laboratory where their results came positive.
“It is the same laboratory that had tested some group in Nairobi and the same thing happened, ’said Kagwe.
He added “why should you go for testing in a laboratory when you know that the result you are going to get are questionable”.
He was speaking in Nakuru during a working tour assessing the county’s preparedness towards managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CS noted that it was the government’s responsibility to ensure that all agencies engaged in the war against the COVID-19 pandemic stick to the laid down guidelines.
He directed the Kenya Medical Board to institute investigations against the Lancet laboratory promising that action will be taken including revoking its operating license should it be found to have messed up with the testing procedures.
This comes even as Kenya confirmed 461 more COVID-19 cases on Thursday raising the number on infections recorded in the country so far to 11,252.
By Thursday’s update, seven Kenyans had lost their lives to COVID-19 taking the total number of fatalities in the country to 209.
Fifty-one more people recovered from the virus bringing the total number of recoveries to 3,068.
