Tests to diagnose whether you have the COVID-19 coronavirus are not always correct.
Just like any medical tests, it may say you have the disease when you don’t – called a false positive – or it may say that you don’t have the disease when you actually do – called a false negative.
The inaccuracy inherent in such testing is the likely reason for last week’s reports of a false positive result in the Free State.
To ensure they don’t get a false negative, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) performs two tests on patients who test negative after initially testing positive.
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