Officials in Guatemala opened an investigation after finding roughly 30,000 fake Covid-19 tests being sold for a combined value of roughly USD 1 million. Edwin Asturias, the former head of the country’s pandemic response, said that false-negative tests may have helped aggravate the spread of the coronavirus.
Venderle al @MinSaludGuate pruebas #COVID19 falsas en medio de la peor epidemia que ha enfrentado #Guatemala lo dice todo de los negociantes de la Salud. Cuantos casos positivos fueron falsamente diagnosticados como negativos y contagiaron a su familia? https://t.co/LzSkpgD1Rc
— Dr. Edwin Asturias (@easturia) February 22, 2021
The tests were allegedly brought in from the U.S. by a private company in Guatemala, which the U.S. supplier denies.
Since the start of the pandemic, several countries in Latin America have reported cases of fake tests, fake vaccines, as well as other wrongdoings, such as oxygen cylinder theft or overpriced supply purchases.
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