A 27-year-old man in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) received a reactive result for a pregnancy test after undergoing a COVID-19 rapid test, with health officials in the province duly admitting the mistake.
“Today [June 13] we admit our error and will correct it by publishing the correct lab results,” Widyanto P Adhy, spokesman of the COVID-19 task force in NTT’s Rote Ndao regency, said on Saturday.
Adhy reportedly refused to provide an explanation on how the error occurred.
“I don’t think it is important to report how [the error occurred], but that we have taken steps to make sure that the same mistake won’t be repeated,” Adhy said.
The man, identified by his initials AB, recently returned from a trip to a COVID-19 high-risk area and underwent a COVID-19 rapid test while he was quarantined at a local facility in Rote Ndao. He reportedly received his results on Saturday, which showed results for a pregnancy test instead of for the coronavirus.
“Isn’t it weird, they took the sample for COVID-19, but the result that came out is for pregnancy. And the patient whose samples were taken was a man,” Ferdinan Boik, identified as AB’s brother, said.
According to reports, the lab results were issued by Ba’a General Hospital and that the mistake had only been a typo, meaning that AB’s rapid test showed “reactive” result for COVID-19 and should therefore undergo a swab test. However, Adhy had requested AB and his family to wait for a reexamination of AB’s sample, so that they can reconfirm the results of his rapid test.
“We ask that the [hospital] staff be serious about this disease, because it has claimed the lives of many people,” Naomi Toulasik, who is identified as a family member of AB, said.
NTT has so far confirmed 108 COVID-19 cases, including 108 recoveries and one death.
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