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Most of the cases corresponded to samples taken from a pharmaceutical company, where there was supposedly an outbreak of the disease.
The alarm went off on Saturday, April 23, when a high level of positive cases of COVID-19 was reported in Antioquia.
Eight days later, the Sectional Health Secretariat was able to show that of the 95 tests carried out by the laboratory, 55 with a negative result showed no inconsistencies, but the 40 that had tested positive were actually negative.
“At that very moment we contacted the laboratory to analyze this positivity index of 40 positive cases that we had. There we are going to adjust them to the department because they are cases that we must lower from the Antioquia statistics, ”explained Lina Bustamante, the departmental health secretary.
80 percent of these cases were from a pharmaceutical company based in Medellín, where there was talk of an outbreak of the pandemic.
“They are already cases that are adjusted (to statistics) and are cases that patients already have the information,” Bustamante said.
That is to say, the 475 confirmed cases in Antioquia must be subtracted from the 40 that had been positive. But why do these errors occur?
“There is an international desire to diagnose COVID-19 and that can generate details in the reagents, in the supplies, in the procedures, inconsistencies. The important thing is not that the inconsistencies happen or do not happen, but that they are detected in time ”, explained Juan Pablo Hernández, representative of university laboratories in Antioquia.
Health authorities also announced that the most critical peak of infections in Antioquia was forecast for mid-May, but thanks to the measures it was possible to extend it by mid-June.
