Health Secretary Matt Hancock has issued a warning over one type of coronavirus test and says the equipment should no longer be used.
Mr Hancock told MPs of an issue relating to testing while speaking in the House of Commons.
He said: “We’ve identified some test swabs that are not up to the usual high standard that we expect and we’ll be carrying out further testing of this batch.
“As a precautionary measure, and while we investigate further, we’re requesting the use of these Randox swab test kits are paused in all settings until further notice.
“This problem was brought to my attention yesterday afternoon, we contacted settings using these swabs last night and published the pause notice immediately.
“Clinical advice is that there’s no evidence of any harm, the test results are not affected, there is no evidence of any issues with our other test swabs and there is no impact on access to testing.”
Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth asked the Health Secretary what was wrong with the Randox test kits and how many had been used.
He said: “Is there a health risk to anyone who has been tested with these kits? And how many people have these unsafe kits been used on and why weren’t the certifications checked before these kits were used?
“These kits tend to be used in many care homes. We want care home residents to be tested regularly, we want care home staff to be tested regularly – can he guarantee that those care homes will now get alternative kits rapidly?”
Mr Hancock replied: “The reason is that they had a CE stamp and upon investigation of the certification of that stamp the certification was not forthcoming, and therefore physical checks were done and we found that the swabs weren’t up to the standards that we expect.
“This is limited to the Randox element of the testing system, not the broader testing system that we have, and I explained the clinical position which is that there is no evidence of any harm having been done and that there is full access to testing because we have plenty of other test kits available.”
