UPDATE Friday 30 July 1.20pm: ACT Health has confirmed the 11th person tested negative to COVID-19 this morning.
Friday 30 July 10.32am: The ACT Government is looking into how and why 11 people were told they had tested positive to COVID-19.
The 11 people were notified of a positive test result on Wednesday by a private pathology provider. ACT Health arranged for urgent re-testing of the individuals, 10 of whom have now tested negative.
The 11th person is awaiting their results in isolation in NSW.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said on ABC Radio this morning there are a number of questions for the pathology provider, which has yet to be named publicly.
“There’s a number of issues in relation to how the false positives occurred.
“Was there a contamination of sample? And then I think there’s probably a second set of questions around once you have a test that shows a positive, what are your protocols then for absolutely confirming that is the case? Because this obviously would be a cause for concern both for the individuals and clearly for the community.”
He said while positive test results have implications for Government decision making and the community, it wouldn’t be feasible for government-run testing to be the only facilities to administer COVID-19 tests.
“There’s not the capacity in Australia just with government labs and there’s obviously a very extensive private pathology network both in this city and Australia wide.”
Addressing “rumours” in the community about positive cases and lockdowns, Mr Barr said ACT Health is the “one source of truth”.
“I am regularly confronted by rumours and told various things and pretty much all of the time they’re wrong.”
An ACT Health spokesperson said yesterday “should there be a positive case in the ACT, we will provide information and advice to the community as quickly as possible”.
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