The head of the united kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has ordered an investigation into why it took a month to spot a laboratory giving incorrect Covid check results.
Dr Jenny Harries aforementioned it had been “not clear yet” what went wrong at the personal workplace in Wolverhampton.
About 43,000 folks in England and Wales may are wrong told their Covid-19 check was negative.
Testing at the workplace has been suspended and people affected square measure being contacted.
Concerns were flagged once folks had positive lateral flow tests (LFTs) however negative follow-up PCR results from the workplace between eight September and twelve October. Most of these affected sleep in south-west England.
The error might mean thousands of individuals infected with Covid were wrong told to prevent analytic , and should have infected others.
Dr Harries, chief government of the UKHSA and head of NHS check and Trace, aforementioned native public health groups had been querying tests over the previous couple of weeks, however it had been solely within the previous couple of days that the matter was pinpointed.
“It is that the location of the laboratory, combined with the geographics and also the fundamental measure, that has allowed us to grasp this currently,” she said.
“I need to form positive if there are any more issues with alternative laboratories we are able to fully spot them as quickly as potential.”
Dr Harries aforementioned she would conduct “a serious incident investigation” to form positive it does not happen once more.
All samples from the workplace, wherever Immensa Health Clinic Ltd runs the testing operations, square measure currently being sent to alternative labs.
UKHSA aforementioned all alternative labs were operating unremarkably and there have been no technical problems with the check kits themselves.
Government records show that Immensa, that was based in could 2020 simply months once the beginning of the pandemic, has been awarded contracts for Covid testing by the Department of Health valued at £181m.
It is connected to a different company, Dante Labs, that provides genetic sequencing and alternative laboratory services from offices in Wolverhampton and Cambridge.
It additionally sells personal PCR Covid tests to travellers, and is one in all twenty corporations being investigated by the united kingdom competition watchdog over issues it should have below the belt treated customers.
