Sweden uncovers 3,700 false positives from COVID-19 test kit

Sweden's Public Health Agency said Tuesday a faulty test kit had returned some 3,700 false positive results, an error discovered by two laboratories during routine quality controls.

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.

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.

It added that it would contact those affected this week, as well as adjusting Sweden's official number of cases.

"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".

Sweden on Tuesday said it had 86,891 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 5,814 deaths.

© 2020 AFP