43,000 in UK may have received false negative Covid-19 test results
- Private laboratory told to stop processing swabs in what government says is “isolated incident”
- All those affected will be contacted, advised to get another test
The UK Health Security Agency said the Immensa Health Clinic Ltd. lab in Wolverhampton, central England, has been suspended from processing swabs after the false negatives.
Will Welfare, the agency’s public health incident director, said it was working “to determine the laboratory technical issues” behind the inaccurate tests.
The issue was uncovered after some people who were positive for the virus when they took rapid tests went on to show up as negative on more accurate PCR tests.
The health agency said that “around 400,000 samples have been processed through the lab, the vast majority of which will have been negative results, but an estimated 43,000 people may have been given incorrect negative PCR test results,” mostly in southwest England. The incorrect results were given between September 8 and October 12.
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The agency said it was “an isolated incident attributed to one laboratory” and people affected would be contacted and advised to get another test.