The Ministry of Health (MoH) yesterday confirmed that a few persons have been forging COVID-19 test results in order to travel.
MoH spokesman Daniel Singh while confirming that persons have been forging their test results assured that such acts are minimal and that there are systems in place at the airports to prevent recurrences.
He revealed that three travellers — one outgoing and two incoming — presented forged COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test results to port health staff at the airport. He related that when those incoming passengers presented their test results to port health staff, the documents were carefully scrutinised and assessed and when it was discovered that the results were faked, they were told to subject themselves to testing at the airport.
In addition, he said that the staff also review test results provided by persons leaving the country, which was how they were able to discover that at least one person leaving Guyana was involved in the activity. He noted that such a system needed to be put in place in other countries to avoid recurrences.
Singh also said that there have been a few instances where persons presented a rapid antibody test result and the ministry has since tried to solve this issue. He noted that once a person presents a wrong type of test result, a fake test result or a PCR test that was taken more than three days prior to travel, they will have to be retested and wait until their results became available to them.
Last Thursday, Eureka Medical Laboratories Inc., in a statement, had said that it received reports of persons falsifying negative COVID-19 results so that they may travel. “Amidst all the rush that the Holidays bring, there are some unscrupulous individuals who try to expedite the process of their travel, and do the most objectionable act of faking their COVID-19 test results. We do not condone this,” the lab said before adding that it has since put systems in place to guard against the “criminal act.”
In order to travel to Guyana, travellers are required to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test result that was issued no earlier than 72 hours. If the test was done within four to five days before travel, they will have to be re-tested at the airport.
