Swedish Health officials are scrambling to trace other users of Chinese-made self-test COVID-19 kits after the device gave positive results all 3,700 people who used it. Upon further tests at the hospital, however, all 3,700 users tested negative.
Swedish Public Health Agency has therefore alerted international health authorities about the problem for the appropriate action and response to be take. Meanwhile the agency is putting together plans for all affected people to be contacted no later than Thursday says the Swedish health authorities.
The affected regions who came with the failed Covid-19 tests are, Blekinge, Dalarna, Gävleborg, Västerbotten, Västernorrland and Västmanland. All those who have received incorrect positive coronavirus results will be contacted no later than Thursday, 27 August.
The agency said the PCR kits, which test for an ongoing COVID-19 infection, were made in China by the company BGI Genomics and had been distributed worldwide. In Sweden, the kits were used by people conducting at-home tests between period March and August, the agency said.
“The faulty test kit has been reported to the Swedish Medical Products Agency. It has been exported by China to many other countries,” the agency said, adding that it has “informed relevant authorities in Europe and the WHO”. Mostly, “people who had mild symptoms or who didn’t feel any symptoms at the time of the test received false positive results,” the agency said in a statement.
Sweden on Tuesday said it had 86,891 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 5,814 deaths.
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