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The Zambian government on Sunday warned people against getting COVID-19 testing results from some private facilities which were giving false results.

Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya said there were some private facilities that have not been certified to conduct COVID-19 tests which have mushroomed and were giving false and fake results to members of the public.

He said during a daily COVID-19 briefing that the Ministry of Health was the only custodian of all COVID-19 tests and results in the country and that any results from facilities not certified will not be accepted.

“We have noted with concern that there are some facilities purporting to do COVID-19 results and are giving false results. We have designated centers where we are conducting tests people should avoid going for rapid tests from these facilities,” he said.

He noted that people should not get false hopes by getting results from the undesignated facilities, adding that it will not help them in any way.

Meanwhile, Zambia recorded 182 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours.

The health minister said the cases were picked from 651 tests conducted and that this brings the cumulative cases to 8,085.