Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has ordered a probe on Lancet Kenya after conflicting Covid-19 results of 17 teaching staff of St Andrew’s School Turi.
Lancet Lab had declared the staffers positive but when the school sought a second opinion from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri), the 17 turned negative.
CS Kagwe on Thursday said he had directed the medical board to immediately begin a probe on laboratories producing contradictory results.
“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 CS.
Noting that the Ministry will take relevant action, Kagwe, who was speaking in Nakuru, also urged the public to avoid visiting such facilities.
“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?” he posed.
The CS warned that the 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,” CS Kagwe said.
