Uni students with Covid may have wrongly received negative test results due to “rushed” and “inaccurate” testing ahead of the Christmas break, a University of Birmingham study has discovered.
Results from the study showed that lateral flow tests conducted on Birmingham students had missed positive Covid test results, which were discovered when students were retested with another testing method. The study shows that only 3 per cent of Covid cases were correctly identified.
Lateral flow tests involve a student taking a self swab which is then mixed with a “buffer solution” by a trained professional. The buffer solution is then dropped onto a lateral flow device, this indicates whether the disease is present in the individual in as little as 10-15 minutes.