Concerns voiced over 'false' virus test results

People could be unwittingly spreading coronavirus despite testing negative because of concerns around test reliability, a professor has said.

Alyn Morice, head of cardiorespiratory studies at Hull York Medical School, was unwell with typical Covid-19 symptoms but tested negative.

He said it was a "common story" among many patients seen by consultants at Castle Hill Hospital in Hull.

The government said it had "full confidence in these tests".

Prof Morice started showing signs of the virus last month and was tested at the drive-through swabbing site at Castle Hill Hospital.

He said: "It came back negative and I was advised I could go back to work but at that point I couldn't lift my head off the pillow.

"By the second week I felt very unwell. The lethargy was absolutely dreadful and by day 10 my heart went a bit dicky.

"There was no point doing another test because clinically it was obvious I had the virus."

Prof Morice said the test was accurate in terms of a positive result, but that a negative test "meant nothing".

In response, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We have full confidence in these tests - they're reliable and our highly-skilled scientists do everything possible to make sure false results are extremely rare."

"More than 1.4 million people have now been tested, and the vast majority have had no issues with their test results."

Prof Morice said negative tests results could give carriers false confidence to go about their lives as normal and inadvertently spread the disease.

He added: "It's vitally important especially now as restrictions are being eased and people are going back to work that if you are displaying symptoms, even if you've tested negative, then you should assume you have the virus and should self isolate."

Patrick Lillie, infectious diseases consultant at Castle Hill, said in about 75% of cases, infected patients would get a positive result.

He said in instances of false negatives, it would be linked to not getting a good enough swab or the virus being too far down in the chest.

"If you've got classic coronavirus illness and an X-ray which looks like coronavirus, it doesn't matter what the test says, you should treat them as if they have it," he said.

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