Nearly 100 people in Connecticut who received positive tests for coronavirus actually did not have the disease, according to reports.
A total of 90 of the 144 people screened between June 15 and July 17, many of whom are nursing home residents, received false positives due to a failure of the test used in the state public health laboratory. NBC Connecticut reported.
State officials said the test maker, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Public Health have been notified of the problem and immediate steps were taken to ensure patients are notified, the outlet reported.
“We have notified everyone who received a false positive result from our state laboratory to health care facilities,” said Acting Commissioner Deidre S. Gifford of the state department of social services.
“Accurate and timely testing for the new coronavirus is one of the pillars supporting the effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Authorities said the poor results came “from a widely used laboratory testing platform that the state laboratory began using on June 15,” the outlet reported.
Gifford said the changes are already underway “to ensure the accuracy of future testing results for this platform.”
In the future, all positive coronavirus results will undergo further analysis by multiple scientists and, if necessary, samples will be re-analyzed using an alternative method, the outlet said.
Nursing home residents who received the false positive will be re-evaluated as soon as possible, the state health department said, according to the report.
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