But today’s announcement raised several huge questions about the scope of the problem.
Nursing homes routinely house COVID-19-infected patients together in a separate wing for weeks until they recovered and tested negative. Later in the pandemic the state and the industry established six locations to house only elderly residents who had tested positive for the virus.
State health officials could not say if any of these 90 “false positives” later contracted the coronavirus, though they conceded some likely were placed in close proximity to others with the disease. Representatives of the state’s two major, nursing home associations did not comment today.
All but one of those — 89 — were residents of nursing homes or assisting living communities, Gifford said., The other was in an acute care hospital when tested.
The state’s public health laboratory also is not the only one providing tests in Connecticut. The state is working with four private labs associated with Yale University, The Jackson Laboratory in Farmington, Genesys Diagnostics in Montville and Sema4 based in Stamford.
Connecticut health officials said they’re exploring but don’t know if these sites also had issues with false positive test results.
“I don’t want to jump to any conclusion about numbers,” Gifford said during a mid-afternoon news teleconference.”We are talking to partner labs in this state.”
Gifford said “I’m sure that they will be looking into and reviewing the data from their laboratories.”
But she added that Connecticut has tested thousands of individuals and health officials believe the number of patients who received inaccurate test results is a very tiny fraction of the overall pool.
Connecticut’s problems center on a coronavirus test developed by Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Fisher Scientific, Gifford and Razeq said.
The manufacturer also must provide specific procedures for performing the test. But after discovering inconsistencies with test results Wednesday and Thursday of last week, Connecticut health officials learned that Thermo Fisher had “changed and tweaked some of the steps in the procedure” unbeknownst to the state, Razeq said.
Thermo Fisher spokesman Ron O’Brien said the company has made “a number of amendments” to its original procedure since it was established on March 13, but they all are posted on the company’s website and readily available to public and private laboratories.
“The details on how they run are all spelled out on that website,” he said.
Connecticut has since reported the flaw to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as to the test manufacturer, and has notified representatives of all of the affected patients.
But today’s announcement raised several huge questions about the scope of the problem.
Nursing homes routinely house COVID-19-infected patients together in a separate wing for weeks until they recovered and tested negative. Later in the pandemic the state and the industry established six locations to house only elderly residents who had tested positive for the virus.
State health officials could not say if any of these 90 “false positives” later contracted the coronavirus, though they conceded some likely were placed in close proximity to others with the disease. Representatives of the state’s two major, nursing home associations did not comment today.
All but one of those — 89 — were residents of nursing homes or assisting living communities, Gifford said., The other was in an acute care hospital when tested.
The state’s public health laboratory also is not the only one providing tests in Connecticut. The state is working with four private labs associated with Yale University, The Jackson Laboratory in Farmington, Genesys Diagnostics in Montville and Sema4 based in Stamford.
Connecticut health officials said they’re exploring but don’t know if these sites also had issues with false positive test results.
“I don’t want to jump to any conclusion about numbers,” Gifford said during a mid-afternoon news teleconference.”We are talking to partner labs in this state.”
Gifford said “I’m sure that they will be looking into and reviewing the data from their laboratories.”
But she added that Connecticut has tested thousands of individuals and health officials believe the number of patients who received inaccurate test results is a very tiny fraction of the overall pool.
Connecticut’s problems center on a coronavirus test developed by Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Fisher Scientific, Gifford and Razeq said.
The manufacturer also must provide specific procedures for performing the test. But after discovering inconsistencies with test results Wednesday and Thursday of last week, Connecticut health officials learned that Thermo Fisher had “changed and tweaked some of the steps in the procedure” unbeknownst to the state, Razeq said.
Thermo Fisher spokesman Ron O’Brien said the company has made “a number of amendments” to its original procedure since it was established on March 13, but they all are posted on the company’s website and readily available to public and private laboratories.
“The details on how they run are all spelled out on that website,” he said.
Connecticut has since reported the flaw to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as to the test manufacturer, and has notified representatives of all of the affected patients.
