UK: 1000s may have gotten false negative COVID test results

LONDON — British wellness officials said Friday that an estimated 43,000 radical whitethorn person been wrongly told they don’t person the coronavirus due to the fact that of problems astatine a backstage laboratory.

The U.K. Health Security Agency said a laboratory successful Wolverhampton, cardinal England, has been suspended from processing trial swabs aft reports of mendacious negatives. The faulty results were among tests processed astatine the Immensa Health Clinic Lab betwixt aboriginal September and this week.

The contented was uncovered aft immoderate radical who were affirmative for COVID-19 erstwhile they took accelerated tests went connected to amusement up arsenic antagonistic connected much close PCR tests.

“Around 400,000 samples person been processed done the lab, the immense bulk of which volition person been antagonistic results, but an estimated 43,000 radical whitethorn person been fixed incorrect antagonistic PCR trial results,” mostly successful southwest England, the wellness bureau said.

The bureau called the occupation “an isolated incidental attributed to 1 laboratory” and said the radical affected would beryllium contacted and advised to get different test.

One section authorization successful England, West Berkshire Council, has told radical who were tested astatine the government-run Newbury Showground tract betwixt Oct. 3 and 12 and were told they were antagonistic to get tested again.

Britain conducts astir 1 cardinal coronavirus tests a time and reported astir 40,000 caller infections a time implicit the past week.