Authorities and Experts Conduct On-Site Full Inspection Amid Repeated COVID-19 False Positives (Update)

On the 8th, Wonmuk High School in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, is closed. A female student in the 3rd grade at Wonmuk High School, A, was confirmed positive for COVID-19 after visiting Lotte World in Jamsil around 12 PM on the 5th. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] Recently, as false positive cases have been repeatedly reported during the diagnostic testing process for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), quarantine authorities and expert groups have decided to jointly inspect frontline sites.

On the 15th, at the regular briefing of the Central Disease Control Headquarters, Kwon Gye-cheol, director of the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine, said, "Within this week, the Society for Laboratory Medicine and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency will jointly conduct on-site inspections targeting specialized medical institutions for testing to check specimen management and the overall testing process, actively supporting improvements by identifying vulnerabilities where contamination risks exist."

During the on-site inspection, the focus will be on whether the laboratory certification review manual, which was issued at the society level, is being properly followed, especially regarding whether sufficient personnel are secured and trained in response to the increased testing volume. It will also be checked whether the diagnostic testing process and related data are properly maintained.

Previously, cases were reported where students from Seoul Wonmuk High School who visited Lotte World, as well as individuals from Gwangju and Nonsan in Chungnam, initially tested positive but later received negative results upon retesting. Director Kwon stated, "As a result of retesting the remaining specimens held by the first testing institution, sputum specimens tested negative, while specimens mixed with buffer solution tested positive," suggesting a high possibility of errors occurring during the handling process.

Democratic Party of Korea's Lee Nak-yeon, Chair of the COVID-19 National Crisis Overcoming Committee, visited GC Green Cross Medical Foundation in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province last April to observe COVID-19 specimen diagnostic testing.

He continued, "All three false positive cases showed negative results in the upper respiratory tract and positive in the lower respiratory tract, which does not align with the typical characteristics of newly infected individuals," adding, "The on-site inspection confirmed that overall test management had no issues, but one staff member handling a large number of sputum specimens caused a vulnerability to contamination."

This is not a structural problem related to the accuracy of testing equipment or kits, but rather an issue that can arise due to overload at frontline sites as the volume of tests to be conducted has recently increased. Jung Eun-kyung, head of the Central Disease Control Headquarters, said, "It is true that the volume of testing work has significantly increased and continued, which can lead to errors due to accumulated fatigue," and added, "We will investigate all entrusted testing institutions to identify any problems and develop improvement measures."

Jung also stated, "I do not believe that the overall reliability or accuracy of the tests has declined," emphasizing, "The reporting of false positive cases is an important issue, and moving forward, accuracy is far more important than the quantity of tests."

At the briefing, Lee Hyuk-min, director of infection control at the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine and professor at Yonsei University, explained, "As of last weekend, the number of tests conducted by private medical institutions was 2,083,750, with daily test requests increasing from about 24,000 during the Daegu Shincheonji incident to over 36,000 currently," adding, "Although fatigue is an issue, it is important to manage testing carefully to prevent errors given the importance of COVID-19 testing."

Professor Lee said, "Medical institutions compare patients' conditions with test results, so to date, no testing errors are known," but noted, "In the case of specialized specimen testing institutions involved in the issue, it is difficult to know the patient's condition, which poses some challenges in the final interpretation of test results."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.