PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Coronavirus: Screening (30 October 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the operational false positive rate has been of community mass testing for SARS-CoV-2 by polymerase chain reaction testing during each of the last four weeks; and if he will publish the quality assurance report supporting the calculation of that rate.

Asked by:
Esther McVey (Conservative)

The information is not available. All tests have been assessed as performing to manufacturers’ specifications before being used. The current tests are very specific and the risk of false positives, where the test is reacting to other viruses, is extremely low in the order of less than 1 in 500. Like any diagnostic test however, there is always the small possibility of a false negative or a false positive result.

Answered by:
Helen Whately (Conservative)
25 November 2020