Peterborough Public Health announced on Friday afternoon (May 1) that 22 positive COVID-19 test results reported for the week of Wednesday, April 22nd to Wednesday, April 29th may be invalid.
Bio-Test Laboratories in Ottawa notified the health unit that it has rejected 94 positive test COVID-19 results, including 22 from the Peterborough area, due to a technical error.
There is a concern the results may have been false positives.
“Peterborough Public Health has been significantly impacted by this lab event,” says Peterborough medical officer of health Dr. Rosana Salvaterra. “Our staff has worked swiftly to ensure those impacted are informed and retested as we want to resolve this as quickly as possible.”
Dr. Salvaterra says that 22 of 27 positive cases reported for the period of April 22 to 29 were processed at Bio-Test Laboratories and will require further testing to determine their validity.
One of the 22 people affected has since passed away, but the health unit has already contacted the remaining 21 people to advise them of the potential error and to recommend they be retested.
The need for retesting will also impact the close contacts of these cases.
The health unit says Public Health Ontario is aware of the situation and has discontinued sending any more specimens to Bio-Test Laboratories for COVID-19 testing for the time being. The health unit says there is no reason to question the validity of any negative results from Bio-Test Laboratories.
Peterborough Public Health has reported 86 positive COVID-19 test results as of Friday (May 1), but says this number may now be inaccurate and will be revised as results from retesting become available.
