CBP Intercepts First Package of Counterfeit COVID-19 Test Kits – By Brandi Vincent (Nextgov) / March 19 2020
Packages aren’t always what they seem.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized a package filled with fake COVID-19 test kits late last week—marking the agency’s first interception of counterfeit goods connected to the novel coronavirus outbreak, an official confirmed to Nextgov Thursday.
While conducting an enforcement examination of “a parcel manifested as ‘Purified Water Vials’ with a declared value of $196.81” that’d recently arrived from the United Kingdom, CBP officers assigned to the Los Angeles International Airport International Mail Facility on March 12 apparently realized something was awry.
“A complete examination of the shipment, led to the finding of vials filled with a white liquid and labeled ‘Corona Virus 2019nconv (COVID-19)’ and ‘Virus1 Test Kit,’” officials wrote in the announcement. “The shipment was turned over to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for analysis.”
Though an official from CBP’s public affairs office told Nextgov that the incident was the first COVID-19 related counterfeit finding by the agency so far, they would not confirm if it was the only counterfeit finding the agency intercepted related to the pandemic.
Continue to article: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2020/03/cbp-intercepts-first-package-counterfeit-covid-19-test-kits/163932/
