Investigators estimate around 20 deaths linked to blunder caused by ‘staff error’ over 39,000 PCR tests in Covid-19 lab
A blunder at a laboratory which saw thousands of positive Covid-19 cases reported as negative could have led to the deaths of at least 20 people, according to new estimates.
The error at the wolverhampton lab meant that around 39,000 PCR tests were reported as negative when they should have been positive between September 2 and October 12 2021 – mostly in the south-west of England.
As a result, many people would have continued with their daily lives and not self isolated even though they had Covid-19.
Experts from the UK Health Security agency(ukhsa) have estimated that the blunder led to about 55,000 additional infections.
They estimated that each person who received a false negative result went on to infect around two other people on average – though some would have continued to take measures to reduce the spread of infection.
Researchers also estimated that there were about 680 additional hospital admissions "that may not otherwise have occurred".
"Similarly, we estimate that there may have been just over 20 additional deaths in these most affected areas," they added.
Supplementary data suggests there could have been 684 additional hospital admissions and 23 extra deaths than would have been expected due to the error.
And in a worst-case scenario the blunder could have led to up to 154 extra deaths, but this estimate is much less likely.
NHS Test and Trace suspended testing operations provided byim mensa health clinic ltd at its laboratory in Wolverhampton in October 2021 following reports of inaccurate results.
An investigation into the blunder, conducted by the UKHSA, concluded that the error occurred because staff at the lab set the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results incorrectly.
Richard Gleave, UKHSA director and lead investigator, said: "Through this investigation we have looked carefully at the arrangements in place for overseeing contracts of private labs providing surge testing during this time.
"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.”