Moroccan Health Ministry Urged to Regulate High-Priced COVID-19 Tests at Private Labs

The Ministry of Health is called upon to regulate the prices offered by private laboratories for Covid-19 screening tests. They would take advantage of the explosion of contamination cases, synonymous with large-scale screening, to offer "scandalous" prices, reports the daily Al Akhbar.

Yet in times of crisis, all components of society should play their role for an effective fight against the virus, the newspaper points out, specifying that this behavior could nullify all the efforts made by the State to curb the pandemic.

As an example, the daily explains that if four members of the same family are infected, they will have to spend at least 2,400 dirhams, as the applied rates vary between 600 and 700 dirhams. This is expensive for families and a very good deal for private laboratories, which are in high demand at the moment.

According to the newspaper, an average of 40,000 to 100,000 tests are performed per day. A single private laboratory can perform an average of 400 tests per day and thus generate a daily turnover that can reach up to 280,000 dirhams. And to top it off, these laboratories only want to be paid in cash. All these reasons justify the anger of Moroccans who denounce the greed of medical analysis laboratories.