Miskin Law plans to take a Ottawa testing laboratory and a COVID-19 test manufacturer to court for a series of false positive COVID-19 test results.
According to a media release from the Peterborough-based law firm issued on Tuesday (May 5), false positive test results of staff members and residents at Case Manor Care Community, a long-term care facility in Bobcaygeon, “created distress and severe hardship for people living at Case Manor and those who care for them.”
According to the media release, Miskin Law says samples from staff and residents taken in late April were sent to Bio-Test Laboratories in Ottawa. Miskin Law also claims the tests were provided by Spartan Bioscience, also of Ottawa.
The results showed eight positive COVID-19 cases among 13 people tested. On Friday (May 1), Bio-Test Laboratories advised the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (HKRP) District Health Unit that 13 of the lab’s positive COVID-19 test results were affected by a technical error that may have resulted in false positives.
On Sunday (May 3), Health Canada announced it was restricting the use of a rapid COVID-19 test created by Spartan Bioscience after the National Microbiology Lab (NML) found reliability issues with the test.
Responding to the original version of this story, Spartan Bioscience director of communications Molly Kett writes in an email to kawarthaNOW that the NML found that issues with Spartan’s proprietary swab led to false negatives and not false positives.
Kett also disputes the claim by Miskin Law that Spartan Bioscience tests were used by Bio-Test Laboratories.
“There is no indication that Bio-Test Laboratories received Spartan’s test, and Bio-Test is not a Spartan customer,” Kett writes.
Miskin Law states it has been retained on behalf of the people involved and will be proceeding in the Ontario Court with a class action lawsuit to be issued online for the Superior Court in Peterborough against the lab and test manufacturer.
“The Bobcaygeon community has already been devastated by COVID-19,” says Murray Miskin, senior lawyer and managing director of Miskin Law. “To have false positive test results at Case Manor has made people terrified and they have suffered genuine financial losses in addition to emotional harm.”
Miskin Law states the claim is on behalf of staff and their close friends and family members who have had to stop work and go into isolation, and also for residents and their families.
“Miskin Law is hoping to also work in co-operation with Sienna Senior Living, the owner of the facility, to recover its financial losses resulting from the incorrect testing,” states the media release.
Based in Peterborough with offices in Lindsay and Whitby, Miskin Law is the leading Canadian law firm for asbestos injury compensation and is involved in numerous prescription drug and other injury class actions in addition to local and national personal injury litigation.
This story has been updated with a response from Spartan Bioscience regarding the allegations made by Miskin Law.
