Chatham-Kent’s medical officer of health says the issue of false positives when it comes to COVID-19 is a complicated and often misunderstood one.
Dr David Colby says most of the local cases have been infected through close contacts, but sometimes there are surprises.
“Once in a while, we get a situation where somebody shows up surrounded by people that have been tested and who are negative, they’re asymptomatic, and they test positive,” Colby says. “This is data, it’s not a result, until we get this clarified.”
David Colby says sometimes retesting is needed, especially when dealing with low-risk or asymptomatic individuals.
“When the test is properly applied to an at-risk population, it is a wonderful and accurate test. But you can’t take any diagnostic test and apply it in a screening situation with low-risk people and expect that it’s going to perform well.”
Colby still recommends anyone being tested takes the necessary precautions, including self-isolation, until results can be clarified.
Earlier this week, four results were taken off the cumulative case numbers after secondary testing confirmed they were not true positive results.