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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaScience

False Covid positives leave more than 130 people stranded overnight at Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge

  • Only three infections confirmed upon verification, after on-site service provider Sunrise Diagnostic submits ‘abnormal’ 136 positive results
  • Environmental contamination likely cause, Hong Kong health authorities say, with thorough sanitisation ordered

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Those travelling via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge have to undergo an on-site PCR nucleic acid test at the Hong Kong border, in addition to presenting proof of a prior negative PCR test. Photo: Sam Tsang
Eunice Yang
More than 130 travellers were stranded at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge overnight on Tuesday after on-site nucleic acid tests falsely showed them to be Covid positive.
Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said the service provider running PCR tests at the bridge for outbound travellers submitted 136 positive or indeterminate samples on Tuesday, “which far exceeded that of previous days”. However, only three of the cases were confirmed as positive upon verification, with nine samples still judged to be indeterminate. The rest were all negative.

Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the CHP’s communicable disease branch, said environmental contamination was the likely cause of the faulty test results.

The testing service provider, Sunrise Diagnostic Centre, has been ordered to carry out thorough sanitisation of its laboratory and all its equipment, and submit a report within a week, Chuang said on Wednesday.

Chuang Shuk-kwan says Sunrise Diagnostic Centre must report back on its sanitation efforts within a week. Photo: Yik Yeung-man
Chuang Shuk-kwan says Sunrise Diagnostic Centre must report back on its sanitation efforts within a week. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Sunrise Diagnostic had described Tuesday’s test results as “abnormal” in its report to the Department of Health.

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