Uganda’s Ministry of Health dismissed reports by some local media outlets which claimed it admitted to lapses in COVID-19 test results being released by laboratories it has accredited.
According to the reports, the ministry said some people claimed to have received two different result slips, one indicating positive and the other negative, yet others claimed to have taken two different samples on the same day, but returning different results.
The report further stated that the inconsistencies in COVID-19 test results can be traced back to June when President Yoweri Museveni accused the Makerere University laboratory for faking COVID-19 test results.
“The inconsistencies in Covid-19 test results mean some people have been served false positive Covid-19 results and wrongly started on treatment. It also means those who are truly positive have been given false negative results and left to blend freely with the community and continue transmitting the virus,” the Daily Monitor reported.
The report added that a number of people had come out to refute the COVID-19 test results from the ministry.
“The Ministry of Health Uganda urges the public to disregard the inaccurate and misleading reports by Daily Monitor and Matooke Republic that is circulating on social media,” the ministry said on its official Twitter account.
The ministry subsequently directed the public to refer to the official address delivered by the minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, on September 4. In that address, the ministry addressed the claims of contrasting result slips and receipt of different results from different samples.
Regarding the claim of receiving different results slips, the ministry said it had noted “serious forgery” of COVID-19 test result certificates by sections of the public adding that remedial measures had been taken to weed out the fake certificates.
On the claim of different results obtained from two different samples on the same day, the ministry said that conclusion may arise due to the sampling technique and the amount of sample obtained.
The ministry further stated that those individuals who were found to have tested positive for COVID-19, whether they exhibited the symptoms or not, were urged to “take the test as truly positive” and adhere to the necessary protective measures.
As of September 5, Uganda had recorded 3,667 COVID-19 cases and 1,068 recoveries and 41 deaths from the disease.
