CS Kagwe orders probe on Lancet Kenya over unclear COVID-19 tests

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has put Pathologists Lancet Kenya on the spot for conducting coronavirus testing services which produce conflicting results.

This comes after 17 teaching staff of St Andrew’s School Turi, were tested for COVID-19 at Lancet laboratories and declared positive for the virus only to be told they were COVID-free after their samples were taken to the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri).

Speaking in Nakuru on Thursday, CS Kagwe said he had directed the medical board to immediately begin a probe on laboratories producing unclear results, urging Kenyans to avoid visiting such facilities.

“It is true that there is one lab, specifically Lancet that carried out these tests that eventually turned from positive to negative. It is also the same lab that had also tested a group of people in Nairobi that also had the same circumstance,” said the Health CS.

“The Ministry will take its measures… we have asked our board to review that particular laboratory. But what I would like to urge is that if a lab has got all these unclear results, don’t go there. Why are you going to a lab that you know has been giving information that may not be clear.”

CS Kagwe stated that the said laboratories risk closure should they be found to have violated any set regulations.

“The worst thing that we can do is have a situation where people question the results that we give. We have asked the medical board to relook at some of these labs and where we believe a laboratory is not adhering to the standards then definitely we will close them down,” he said.

Lancet Kenya has on several occasions been put on the spotlight for issuing conflicting COVID-19 test results with members of public demanding action from the government.