Couple arrested for setting up illegal nucleic acid test venue
Police in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, arrested a married couple last week for setting up an illegal nucleic acid test venue and issuing fake COVID-19 test reports.
Local police said most of the people who took tests at the venue were students and business people who were eager to get a negative test result for COVID-19 sooner than the normal process. They were willing to pay the couple twice and even three times the testing expenses than those at designated test venues in the city.
A fake COVID-19 test report (left) and the real one.
The couple could give a negative test results at any desired time to those who took a test. For fear of getting a positive result for their customers, the couple really sent the test samples to a local COVID laboratory.
The couple tested more than 100 people, gaining almost 10,000 yuan (US$1,571) in illegal revenue, Harbin police said.
A similar case was reported last Friday by police in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province.
Three men were found using fake negative COVID-19 test reports at the Nantong Xingdong International Airport last week.
The fake reports were made by a man surnamed Chen, 25, from Rudong County in Jiangsu. Using photoshop, Chen made one report for himself and sold the other two reports to two men surnamed Shen, 36, from Rudong, and Shi, 43, from Nantong's Haimen District.
All three men were arrested and Chen received 12 days of administrative detention while Shen and Shi each received five days.
Three men were arrested by Nantong police in Jiangsu Province on December 8 for providing and using forged negative COVID-19 test reports.
