An error at a laboratory that saw thousands of positive COVID-19 cases reported as negative may have led to the deaths of 20 people, according to new estimates.
Errors at Immensa Health Clinic Ltd in Wolverhampton meant around 39,000 PCR tests were reported as negative when they should have been positive between 2 September and 12 October 2021.
Most of these cases were 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.
Experts from the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) have estimated that the errors led to around 55,000 additional infections, with each person receiving a false result infecting an average of two more people.
The researchers also estimated that there were about 680 additional hospital admissions “that would not have otherwise occurred.”
“Similarly, we estimate that there could have been just over 20 additional deaths in these hardest-hit areas,” they added.
£170 million government contract
Immensa was awarded a £119 million government contract in October 2020 to “urgently develop the volume of PCR tests for COVID in line with test and trace requirements”.
The company was later awarded another £50 million contract to facilitate additional testing capacity.
Reports in The Sun at the time featured images of lab staff appearing to fight, drink alcohol and play football.
As a result, laboratory tests at the center were suspended.
Read more:Twitter quietly drops disinformation policy on COVID China’s COVID protests halted due to cold weather
UKHSA lead investigator Richard Gleave said “staff errors” were the “immediate cause” of the incorrect test results in Wolverhampton.
But he said there was “no single action that NHS Test and Trace could have done differently to prevent this error arising in the private laboratory”.
The Chief Executive of the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA), Dr Jenny Harries, commented: “I fully accept the findings and recommendations made in this report, many of which were implemented as soon as UKHSA discovered the incident
“These continuous improvements will improve our ability to catch problems earlier where they arise.”