A virologist sees “elementary deficiencies” in test centers. Research raises suspicions of fraud. A raid against operators of corona test centers begins in NRW.
Wuppertal/Karlsruhe – Apparently, a number of Corona test centers* are still falsifying their accounts. In several cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, nine suspects between the ages of 22 and 57 are being investigated.
In addition, six suspects between the ages of 25 and 33 were arrested in the Karlsruhe area and in southern Baden, the public prosecutor and the police said on Wednesday (February 23, 2022). They are said to have made a fraudulent business worth millions. The investigators did not name an exact amount of damage, but according to estimates it should be in the single-digit million range.
Corona in Germany: test centers under criticism – six suspects arrested
Four of them were remanded in custody, two more were to be brought before the magistrate. More than 50 test stations have been closed. They are said to have been operated by the gang or by their middlemen.
As research by WDR, NDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung has shown, a number of test centers in North Rhine-Westphalia are currently noticeable because thousands of alleged tests have not produced a positive result in a single case.
For example, while on February 8th across North Rhine-Westphalia, 35,007 (3.5 percent) of a million quick tests were positive, 24 large test centers only reported negative test results.
Coronavirus test centers: virologist sees elementary errors
Since current corona case numbers* of between 80,000 and 250,000 new Covid 19 infections are detected every day and more than 40 percent of the PCR tests are positive, this seems unrealistic at first glance. In addition, an unreported number is to be expected with the current number of corona cases*. Virologist Christian Drosten * from the Berlin Charité sees it that way: “With the very high incidence of the past few weeks, a considerable number of the test persons should be positive,” n-tv quotes the virologist as saying. The information from the test centers is “not plausible”
According to n-tv, virologist Hartmut Hengel from the University of Freiburg calls for more controls on the tests themselves and the test centers. The test centers are not always checked on site by the authorities. Reporting to the health department is also not regulated in the same way in all federal states. “These are all elementary deficiencies,” Hengel is quoted as saying, “and that in the third year of the pandemic.”
Paying for coronavirus tests only if the result is positive would be less risky
Each test is currently remunerated with 11.50 euros. In order to prevent fraud with corona tests and to increase the quality of such tests, researchers recommend a different financing model for the rapid tests. Instead of paying for every test carried out, there should only be money for positive tests confirmed by a PCR test – but then significantly more, economics professor Hanno Beck from Pforzheim University and colleagues suggest, according to dpa. This gives a strong incentive to carefully carry out rapid corona tests with qualified personnel. Because the goal is then to identify infected people. (tk with dpa) *fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
