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

Sweden‘s Public Health Agency on Tuesday August 25, announced that it has uncovered 3,700 false Coronavirus positive results linked to a faulty test kit.

The PCR kits linked to the error which was discovered by two laboratories during routine quality controls, were made in China by the company BGI Genomics and had been distributed worldwide.

According to the agency, the kits were used by people conducting at-home tests between the period of March and August. The development will lead to an adjustment of Sweden’s official number of Coronavirus cases.

The agency said in its statement;

‘People who had mild symptoms or who didn’t feel any symptoms at the time of the test received false positive results.
‘The faulty test kit has been reported to the Swedish Medical Products Agency. It has been exported by China to many other countries. We have also informed relevant authorities in Europe and the WHO’.4

Sweden on Tuesday August 25, said it had 86,891 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and has also recorded 5,814 deaths.

AFP reported that Lockdown-free Sweden last week recorded its highest death toll in a six-month period for 150 years – with 4,500 of its 51,405 fatalities being Covid-19 related. It’s the highest tally from January to the end of June since 1869 when 55,431 people died, largely because of a famine. The population of Sweden then was just 4.1million, compared to 10.3million today.