A faulty COVID-19 test kit produced 3,700 false-positive results, the Swedish public health agency said on Tuesday, an error discovered by two laboratories during systematic quality checks.
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The Folkhälsomyndigheten claimed that the PCR test kits were made in China by the company BGI Genomics and distributed around the world.
They were used in Sweden by people who performed home tests for the period from March to August, according to the agency.
“These are mainly people who had mild symptoms or who had not felt symptoms at the time of the test, who received false positive results,” she said in a statement.
These people must be contacted and informed this week and the number of cases in Sweden must be adjusted accordingly, added the Folkhälsomyndigheten “The faulty test kit has been reported to the Swedish Medicines Agency. It has been exported from China to many other countries besides Sweden. The Public Health Agency has informed the competent authorities in Europe and the World Health Organization ”, explains the press release.
Sweden said it has recorded 86,891 confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which 5,814 have been fatal.