Thursday, October 16, 2025

Labs shut down for selling fake coronavirus tests, price gouging

Government agencies have shut down private medical laboratories in Tamaulipas and Oaxaca for price gouging and selling uncertified Covid-19 tests.

Laboratorio Juárez, located in the city’s historic center, may no longer provide any lab services to the public due to reports that it was charging as much as 18,000 pesos (US $709) for unlicensed tests that cost the lab around 1,500 pesos (US $59) each.

State Health Minister Donato Casas said that so far there are no private medical laboratories certified to administer Covid-19 tests in Oaxaca.

He urged the public to avoid going to private medical centers for Covid-19 services, since it could be a scam or lead to inaccurate results.

The state health risk commission Coespris is working to certify private laboratories in order to be able to provide this service to the public safely.

In Tamaulipas, two laboratories were closed in Tampico for offering tests while not having the necessary certification to do so.

Health officials in Chihuahua also had to tell the public not to seek Covid-19 services at private laboratories in the state, saying in a press release issued on Friday that “as of now, the only institution accredited for the administration of the test is the State Laboratory of Chihuahua.”

The state Health Ministry said that citizens there had also been victims of scams and suffered adverse health effects from unscrupulous practices by private laboratories.

Federal Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said that his department is in no way impeding the ability of private labs to offer the test, but that they must first be certified.

“In the next few days we will announce the advance of this process of accreditation and disbursement of the tests to the private labs that demonstrate their competence,” he told a press conference on Saturday.

He added that there were at that time 41 government labs certified to administer the test.

Sources: Milenio (sp), AS México (sp), El Universal (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
collection center for donations

Here’s how you can help victims of flooding in central Mexico

2
The recent heavy rains in central Mexico left countless victims homeless and in need of supplies. Collection centers have been set up to receive donations of food, clothing and medicine.
a monarch butterfly rests on a flower

Northern states welcome first waves of migrating monarchs

2
Pollinator gardens and wildlife watering stations have been established in the Tamaulipas municipality of Gómez Farías and the nearby El Cielo Biosphere Ecological Park, a UNESCO-recognized area prized for its biodiversity and ecotourism.
DHS agents

DHS: Mexican cartels offering bounties of up to US $50,000 for attacks on US federal agents

46
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a statement on Tuesday claiming that Mexican criminal networks "have issued explicit instructions to U.S.-based sympathetics, including street gangs in Chicago, to monitor, harass and assassinate federal agents."
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity