Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Amandalina Letterio

COVID-19

Interior Health explains confusion around false positives and negatives in COVID-19 testing

Jan 14, 2022 | 11:57 AM

KAMLOOPS — Some COVID-19 PCR tests have been displaying false positives, while some Rapid tests are showing false negatives. It has Kamloops residents feeling uneasy about results.

CFJC News visited downtown Kamloops to get a feel for how people are feeling about COVID-19 testing.

“I’ve gotten COVID tests every week and they come back inconclusive, and you get another one and it’s negative… So…” said one woman.

“I think they’d be pretty effective,” a man explained.

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“False positives and false negatives, I don’t think they’re reliable at all,” said another man.

Interior Health is helping clarify. Medical Health Officer Dr. Carol Fenton says PCR tests are sensitive, but even with the potential for a false positive, the result is still providing vital information.

“The PCR can overshoot, and we are more likely to see false positives after a recent infection in the PCR. So that is why we don’t recommend anyone get retested after they’ve had infection, because that test is still going to be positive,” explained Dr. Carol Fenton.

Anyone who meets the BC Centre for Disease Control’s symptoms criteria for testing is encouraged to make an appointment for a rapid test.

Fenton says if it’s not administered properly, a rapid test can produce a false negative.

“If that rapid test is positive, we can trust that. If the rapid test is negative, is when we’re not really sure if we can trust that negative and that’s why we need to still play it safe when we get a rapid negative result,” she said.

By ‘playing it safe’, Dr. Fenton means anyone displaying symptoms of COVID-19 should stay home, self isolate, and let anyone who they have been in close contact with, know about it.

Although test results aren’t definitive, Fenton stresses that the information is still crucial and rapid tests are offering a helping hand to strained testing facilities.

“For testing symptomatic people who are high risk — so those people who still need to be tested,” Fenton told CFJC Today.

“For example: healthcare workers, we need to know whether or not they can work. We need to know if they have COVID. And our PCR testing capacity cannot keep up, so rapid testing is helping us fill that gap,” she added.