Several dozen people previously thought to have COVID-19 turned out to be “false positives,” the Ministry of Health announced yesterday in its daily coronavirus briefing.
Thirty-three of the cases were discovered during a review of COVID-19 laboratory tests. Subsequent retesting of those involved confirmed that they had not contracted the disease. The issue has been attributed to miscalibrated equipment, and laboratory tests have been halted to resolve the issue.
“There were no false negative results discovered from our review. MOH has taken immediate actions to rectify the situation. The laboratory has stopped all tests and is working to resolve the calibration issue,” it wrote a statement.
Another two patients – case Nos. 18,669 and 19,360 – who had produced ambiguous test results were subsequently verified as negative upon retesting.
All cases are part of the 23,336 infections Singapore has reported since the outbreak began in January. The death toll stands at 20. Another six COVID-19 patients have died due to other causes such as heart disease.
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