It quoted the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) as warning the hijackers and any members of the public who might come into contact with the samples not to touch them as they may be highly infectious.

Port Elizabeth police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said the incident occurred just outside a clinic in Motherwell at about 3.30pm. 

The driver of the truck and a passenger were held at gunpoint and robbed of their personal belongings before the hijackers fled in the courier company vehicle. 

The vehicle was later recovered 500 metres from the hijacking scene, but the samples were missing, Naidu said, adding that police were investigating a case of hijacking and theft.

Anyone who came across the missing samples should contact the NHLS in Port Elizabeth, the lab's provincial manager Tabita Makula said.

Makula said pathology officials were still trying to establish the number of stolen samples as well as the number of people who needed to be re-tested.

The samples were contained in 40-litre cooler boxes in order to keep them at a low temperature. 

“We can confirm that the truck was commissioned by us to collect samples in our facilities in the area,” Makula said, adding that the hijacking had resulted in samples not being collected from other clinics.

The incident will lead to a backlog in the testing programme in the Eastern Cape, which currently has the third highest number of Covid-19 cases in South Africa after reporting 35,316 infections. 

This is not the first such incident to come to light, after a jogger found Covid-19 sample specimens along the N2 highway in East London last month. 

This led to public outrage and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize ordered that the company couriering the specimens at the time be fired. 

The firm later admitted its negligence. 

African News Agency