An estimated 43,000 people may have been given wrong negative PCR Covid test results, health chiefs say, prompting an investigation into what went wrong at a Midlands laboratory.
NHS Test and Trace has suspended testing operations provided by Immensa Health Clinic Ltd at its laboratory in Wolverhampton, following an investigation into reports of people receiving negative PCR test results after they had previously tested positive on a lateral flow.
A negative PCR means people will not have needed to isolate and could potentially have spread the infection to many other people.
The errors relate to test results given to people between 8 September and 12 October, mainly in the southwest of England, but with some cases in the southeast and Wales.
It comes as the current coronavirus rate is nearing the peak seen in the second wave last winter. Estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show overall one in 60 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to 9 October, up from one in 70 the previous week.
One in 60 is the equivalent of about 890,000 people. At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 was estimated to have coronavirus.
