The UK health agency was aware of problematic COVID-19 test results from an Immensa Health Clinic facility nearly a month before testing was halted at the site, according to the Guardian.
Testing at the company's Wolverhampton facility was suspended in mid-October following reports of people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on lateral flow tests but then tested negative by PCR, including some symptomatic individuals. About 43,000 people in England and Wales received incorrect COVID-19 testing results, as GenomeWeb reported at the time.
The Guardian reports, though, that government documents obtained by the Good Law Project indicate that the UK Health Security Agency was alerted on September 14 to an increase in the number of people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 on lateral flow tests but negative by PCR testing by Immensa, but didn't suspend testing there until nearly a month later.
"Ministers have failed to provide an account of what happened and to implement proper safety checks at private labs to prevent this ever happening again," Jo Maugham, the director of Good Law Project, tells the Guardian.
Will Welfare from UKHSA says, according to the Guardian, that an investigation is ongoing and that "[t]hose affected were contacted as soon as possible."