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Center locations offer hundreds of unauthorized COVID tests

On the streets of República de Uruguay, Bolívar and Venustiano Carranza, in downtown Mexico City, there are at least ten stores where they sell, in addition to face masks, masks and antibacterial gel, "home" COVID tests, that anyone can buy and take home.

These products are not authorized by the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris), in fact, the agency itself confirmed to Animal Político, through its Communication office, that they are irregular and represent a risk to the health.

It may interest you: Health Authorities alert for the sale of rapid tests and treatment against irregular COVID

In the stores in the Center where unauthorized homemade COVID tests are sold, which range between 250 and 330 pesos, there are places where they are advertised and visible, in others they even promote them with a megaphone, in two ways: to do it at home or with the option of having someone do it right there on the premises, which, by the way, is not a pharmacy.

In that establishment there was a line of about ten people to be tested, supposedly, for antigen and with a swab, for a cost of 210 pesos.

Customers can buy a single test in these stores or take boxes with 15 for around 1,400 pesos. They are the ones that are probably sold later in cars, which also offer face masks and masks, like one that is parked by El Ángel de la Independencia, in front of the Reforma Starbucks, or through social networks.

A person told this portal that in a group of neighbors where different products are offered, a woman sells home tests of the Realy brand, which are made with a saliva sample, this is placed in a device like those of the pregnancy tests and wait ten minutes for the result.

“My daughter had symptoms, but I didn't want to risk her lining up for four hours in a pharmacy or health center to get tested, so I bought it,” she says.

In the Center, the ones that sell the most are precisely these tests of the Realy brand and some boxes even have the Cofepris seal, but the agency confirms to this portal that they do not have their authorization, and, indeed, in a revision to the list of those that do have the endorsement, these were not found.

But even if they did, they wouldn't have to be sold to be made at home. In Mexico, home COVID tests are not authorized, as they are in other countries like the United States, where the government sends them to people at home, the same as in England. While in Spain they are sold only in pharmacies.

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In Mexico, “the main risk of the informal sale of these tests that are not endorsed by any authority are false negatives, that is a big problem, because people use them to check if they have COVID and if this test does not endorsed or regulated gives a false negative, which is very likely, and the person is sick, they are not going to isolate themselves and they are going to infect others”, explains Alejandro Sánchez, doctor in Biochemical Sciences from the Institute of Biotechnology of the UNAM and member of the Mexican Consortium for Genomic Surveillance (CoViGen-Mex) of respiratory viruses.

Andreu Comas, Doctor of Science, virologist and also a member of this Consortium, adds that in addition to the high risk of false negatives, these home tests or those that are carried out in unauthorized places carry an additional danger for the population and for those who does them.

“With the ones that are made from hyssop and are homemade, people can get hurt. While in non-regulated places even non-sterile swabs can be used or the people who do them do not have the necessary protective equipment, so the risk is both for the person who does it and for the person who is doing it ”.

Since these products are irregular and their sale is illegal, the local health authority, in this case the Health Protection Agency of the Government of Mexico City (Agepsa), must make the corresponding seizures.

Read more: They install 11 macro kiosks for COVID tests in CDMX: where and when to find them

Animal Político requested an interview with Agepsa or information on what is being done in response to this, to which the agency, through social communication, responded with a bulletin.

This, dated January 26, 2022, indicates that Agepsa secured 459 rapid tests for the detection of COVID-19 in four establishments because they lack labeling in Spanish that allows reading the instructions for their correct application, as well as the authorization of the Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris).

This health verification operation was carried out in 28 establishments located in Izazaga 38 and Izazaga 89 squares of the Cuauhtémoc mayor's office, where rapid COVID-19 detection tests are sold to the general public.

During the month of January, says the bulletin, Agepsa has carried out verification visits to 58 establishments dedicated to the sale of rapid tests for COVID-19, with the purpose of verifying that they are authorized by Coferpis and comply with what is stipulated in the Official Mexican Standard NOM-137-SSA1-2008.

Agepsa's social communication office did not provide information on how much has been confiscated in these other verification visits. The Agency assured that the operations to seize irregular home evidence will continue, but did not give further details in this regard.

Cofepris also did not agree to give an interview, until the closing of this note, to find out if home tests will be authorized in Mexico, under what conditions and why this has not been allowed so far, to avoid this irregular sale.

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