CHP announces incident concerning mixing up of virus testing results

     The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) announced an incident concerning the mixing up of virus testing results and apologised for the two affected people.

     The Public Health Laboratory Services Branch under the CHP yesterday (July 20) when following up on the test results of COVID-19 found that the results of two people had been mixed up, where the test report for the person who should have been tested negative had been inputted as positive, while the test report for the person who should have been tested positive has been delayed until yesterday.

     The CHP has immediately contacted the two affected persons to explain and apologise for the incident, as well as carried out corresponding follow-up actions. The patient whose test result should be positive had already been sent to the North Lantau Hospital on July 19 as she was identified as a close contact of another confirmed case and had onset of symptoms. She was transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital for treatment in isolation yesterday. Relevant tracing of close contacts will be carried out.

     As for the person tested in fact negative, as she had stayed in the same negative pressure room with a confirmed patient for several hours after being admitted to the hospital for treatment, the CHP will arrange to send her to a quarantine centre for quarantine and follow up with further virus testing.

     The CHP will carry out an investigation of the incident and review test workflow to prevent reoccurrence of similar incidents in future and ensure the integrity of test results.