Covid lab’s errors ‘may have led to 20 deaths’

A LABORATORY’s mistake in recording almost 40,000 positive Covid cases as negative may have led to 20 deaths, according to estimates.

Around 39,000 PCR tests were reported as false negatives between September 2 and October 12 last year.

It means many people would not have self-isolated even though they had Covid. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) experts have estimated the blunder at the Wolverhampton lab, covering swabs mostly from the South West, led to about 55,000 more infections and 20 deaths. They said there were also about 680 additional hospital admissions ‘that may not otherwise have occurred’.

Researchers estimate each person who received a false negative went on to infect around two others on average, but some would have continued to take measures to reduce the spread of infection.

Reports of inaccurate test results led NHS Test and Trace to suspend operations provided by Immensa Health Clinic Ltd at its laboratory in October last year.

Immensa was awarded a £119million government contract in October 2020 to urgently ‘develop volume for PCR testing for Covid in line with test and trace requirements’.

The company later received another £50million for additional PCR testing.

A UKHSA investigation found the error occurred because staff set threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results incorrectly.

Richard Gleave, UKHSA director, and lead investigator, said: ‘We have concluded that staff errors within Immensa’s Wolverhampton laboratory were the immediate cause of the incorrect reporting of Covid-19 PCR test results in September and October 2021.

‘It is our view that there was no single action that NHS Test and Trace could have taken differently to prevent this error arising in the private laboratory.

‘However, our report sets out clear recommendations to both reduce the risk of incidents like this happening again and ensure that concerns are addressed and investigated rapidly.’

Jenny Harries, UKHSA chief executive, said: ‘I fully accept the findings and recommendations made in this report, many of which were implemented as soon as UKHSA discovered the incident.’ Dante Labs, the owner of Immensa, could not be reached for comment.

‘Staff mistakes were immediate cause’