Sydney lab informs 400 people of incorrect COVID-19 negative test results amid record case load

A lab in Australia’s most populated state told about 400 people that they had tested negative for COVID-19 when in fact they had tested positive for the virus.

The SydPath laboratory in New South Wales mistakenly told 400 people infected with the coronavirus that they had tested negative, St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia said on Sunday.

“As soon we became aware of the issue this morning, Sydpath immediately commenced a process to contact impacted people,” the hospital said in a statement. “An emergency response team is now investigating the cause of this mistake, which is believed to be human error.”

Breaking: St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney launches emergency response after telling 400 people they tested negative for COVID when they are actually POSITIVE.⚠️ pic.twitter.com/0X1xmzj015

— Josh Bavas (@JoshBavas) December 26, 2021

As Nine News reported, SydPath medical director Anthony Dodds said the tests had been conducted a few days before the Christmas holiday.

“Owing to the very large volume of tests that we’ve been contending with at SydPath, last night we incorrectly messaged 400 patients who had been swabbed at our centres from December 22 and December 23 advising them they had tested negative to COVID-19,” said Dobbs.

“These people had in fact tested positive to COVID-19,” he said. “As soon as we became aware of this issue this morning, SydPath immediately commenced the process to contact these impacted individuals.”

Cases in New South Wales have recently skyrocketed after initially remaining low for much of the pandemic as the omicron variant spreads throughout Australia. The previous record in New South Wales for most new cases reported in a day was about 1,600 in September. However, over 6,000 cases were confirmed on Dec. 25.

According to the New South Wales Ministry of Health, there are currently over 43,000 active cases in the state and over 400 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Around 95 percent of the NSW population over the age of 16 is believed to have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and around 93 percent are reported to be fully vaccinated.