SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — San Diego County libraries have handed out tens of thousands of COVID-19 home tests kits in recent weeks to anyone who walked up.
With no record as to who’s getting them or how many, it’s widely known that many people have been visiting various libraries on a daily basis and collecting and accumulating a large number of tests kits.
So, it’s no surprise that many of these tests, meant for people in the U.S., have been taken south of the border.
“My parents are one of them,” said Sandy, a Chula Vista, California, resident who admitted that her parents got several tests kits and took them to relatives in Tijuana.
“There’s a lot of people that need them and they don’t know what they have, they think it’s just a regular cold. A lot of people don’t have vaccines either; it’s not as simple as we get it here,” she said. “Go out and get a test for free to do at home,”
Sandy said very little testing is available in Mexico, with testing sites charging 500 pesos or about $25 per test.
“It’s expensive to get tested, 500 pesos is not easy for a lot of people to pay and there’s not a lot of places where they can get tested,” she said.
Border Report has discovered some of the tests are ending up on the black market being sold online for about $18.
Sandy said her parents did not sell the tests they received in San Diego, although she did say she has a problem with the tests being sold.
“Instead of these people selling them, they should give them away to these people that are in need of a test, you never know you might save a life.”