New research suggests more than 20 per cent of coronavirus cases are being missed by testing — known as 'false negatives' — with one expert saying the results could require a rethink of Australia's COVID-19 strategies.
New research suggests more than 20 per cent of coronavirus cases are being missed by testing — known as "false negatives" — with one expert saying the results could require a rethink of Australia's COVID-19 strategies.The research from Johns Hopkins University pooled the results from seven studies and a combined 1,300 test results
One expert suggested the high number of false negatives had "serious implications" for the nation's suppression strategy COVID-19 testing relies on a type of test called rt-PCR, or just PCR, which looks for viral genes in a sample collected with a swab.Because of this, many have assumed that PCR gives very few "false negative" results — that if you have the virus, the PCR will not come back negative.Coronavirus latest: Follow all the latest information in our COVID-19 update story
It found that, in fact, people confirmed to have coronavirus almost never got a positive result in the first three days of their infection.But even then, the tests still missed about one-in-five confirmed cases.
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