COVID-19 Testing Lab In UK Misreported Several Positive Cases As Negative

An investigation by the UK's Health Security Agency (UKHSA) found the Immensa laboratory to have misreported around 39,000 tests as negative when they should have been positive between September 2 and October 12, 2021.
The cause of the mistakes was the incorrect setting of the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results of PCR samples for COVID-19, UKHSA said in a report after completing an investigation.
The UKHSA said the mistakes could have led to around 55,000 additional infections in areas where the false negatives were reported and may have resulted in the deaths of about 20 people.
Immensa Health Clinic was founded in May 2020 and has been awarded contracts worth £170 million ($203.63 million) to process the results of PCR tests, Reuters reported.
"Through this investigation, we have looked carefully at the arrangements in place for overseeing contracts of private labs providing surge testing during this time," said Richard Gleave, UKHSA director, and the lead investigator.
"There was no single action that NHS Test and Trace could have taken differently to prevent this error from arising in the private laboratory. However, our report sets out clear recommendations to reduce the risk of incidents like this happening again."
Photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay