Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority has identified suspected contamination of Covid-19 in a batch of flocked swabs used in five public hospitals, with two patients found to have shown false positive results.
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The authority said on Saturday that a laboratory at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung detected weak positive results for Covid-19 in some of the flocked swab samples after routine tests were conducted on a batch of specimen collection kits.
Following the discovery, authorities took immediate action, including suspending all flocked swabs from the supplier, enhancing the testing of specimen collection kits delivered in January, and reviewing test results of patients who had used affected swabs.
“The Hospital Authority is following up on this event stringently and has notified the Department of Health,” an authority spokesman said.
“We have demanded that the supplier of the flocked swabs concerned thoroughly investigate its quality control and testing records, provide an explanation, and implement remedial measures.
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“The Hospital Authority does not rule out taking further action to hold the supplier accountable.”
The flocked swabs were procured from a local supplier and delivered to the public hospitals of Kowloon West, including Caritas Medical Centre, Kwai Chung Hospital, North Lantau Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital and Yan Chai Hospital, between January and the end of April.