Authorities: "17-year-old deceased tested negative for COVID-19... Initial test lab contamination possible" (Comprehensive)

Central Disease Control Headquarters: "KCDC, Seoul National University Hospital, Severance Hospital Conducted Identical Tests"
Diagnostic Test Management Committee Final Negative Judgment... "Possibility of Laboratory Contamination at Yeungnam University Hospital"

On the afternoon of the 18th, medical staff were busy moving around in the emergency room of Yeungnam University Hospital in Nam-gu, Daegu.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The Central Disease Control Headquarters for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) announced on the 19th that a 17-year-old boy who was hospitalized and died at Yeungnam University Hospital was tested negative.

The headquarters stated, "Specimen tests were conducted by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and multiple university hospitals, and the Diagnostic Test Management Committee held this morning finalized the result as negative."

Previously, the boy who was admitted on the 13th with pneumonia symptoms and died the day before had inconclusive results alternating between negative and positive in COVID-19 diagnostic tests. According to the quarantine authorities, the hospital conducted 13 tests on the patient before his death. Yu Cheon-kwon, head of the Diagnostic Analysis Management Division at the Central Disease Control Headquarters, explained at the briefing, "The previous 12 respiratory specimen tests were negative, but the last test conducted on the 18th showed partial positive results in the urine and sputum through gene amplification testing, which led to a request for further testing by the KCDC."

COVID-19 infection is determined by amplifying genes and monitoring real-time changes, with threshold values sometimes appearing between negative and positive. Regarding the background of conducting more than ten tests, the quarantine authorities viewed it as "actions based on the judgment of the medical institution involved."

Yu said, "We received residual specimens such as respiratory washings, serum, and urine that showed inconclusive reactions and conducted reanalysis," adding, "Together with the KCDC, we requested the same tests on identical specimens from Seoul National University Hospital and Severance Hospital, and none of the institutions detected COVID-19."

The quarantine authorities consider a high possibility that the tests at Yeungnam University Hospital were conducted incorrectly. The Diagnostic Management Committee decided to inspect the laboratory. Yu stated, "After receiving the original test data from Yeungnam University Hospital, which requested the specimens, and reinterpreting it, PCR reactions were confirmed even in control specimens that did not contain patient samples, reasonably raising suspicion of laboratory contamination or technical errors causing inconclusive reactions."

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