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SINGAPORE – Coronavirus tests are conducted by 13 laboratories in Singapore, most of which are located in public health institutions such as hospitals, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
He added Wednesday (May 13) that the test results are compared to the patients’ clinical symptoms and that he regularly audits these results, including those from private laboratories.
Earlier this week, the Health Ministry had said there were 33 confirmed cases that turned out to be false positives, and the patients were re-examined and found negative. After this, the lab stopped testing to recalibrate its test kits and revalidate them to make sure the results are accurate.
MOH chief medical officer Associate Professor Kenneth Mak said the error had occurred because a test kit used on an analytical machine in the laboratory that conducted the tests between May 5 and 9 had not been calibrated optimally.
This resulted in the test results not being interpreted correctly.
“Currently, no other laboratory is using the same test kit and combination of analytical instruments,” the Ministry of Health said in its statement on Wednesday. “The lab has switched to another test kit that has been shown to work on the analytical instrument.”
He added that affected individuals were isolated while presumed to be positive and, although they have since turned negative, more tests will be done as needed.
The error meant that three of the four cases of Covid-19 found among health workers at the Singapore Expo community care center had been cleared of the virus.
It also led to a factory-converted bedroom at 45 Kaki Bukit Place that was mistakenly identified as a group.
In the week before the incident, Professor Mak had said that about 7,500 tests were performed daily.
The ministry will issue notices to laboratories to ensure that test results are accurate, although misleading results may arise from time to time, he said.
In such cases, laboratories should perform repeated tests with a comparable test kit if possible or request a new sample from the patient. If the problem still cannot be resolved, the samples are sent to the National Public Health Laboratory for confirmation.
The lab, created in 2009, helps track outbreaks of infectious diseases like Zika or the H1N1 swine flu pandemic.
“As a precautionary measure, public health measures such as contact tracing can be instituted for cases with equivocal results while awaiting verification, and they are isolated,” the health ministry said.
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