Professor Jon Deeks, a biostatistician from the University of Birmingham, said rapid coronavirus tests will cause outbreaks in schools if the Government presses on with plans to roll them out nationally because they are so inaccurate
Rapid coronavirus tests will cause outbreaks in schools if the Government presses on with plans to roll them out nationally because they are so inaccurate, a top scientist has warned.
Biostatistician Professor Jon Deeks said he was surprised at how bad the Innova Tried & Tested lateral flow kits performed in his trial of more than 7,000 students at the University of Birmingham.
The 15-minute tests – which the UK has spent more than £600million on – picked up just three per cent of asymptomatic students infected with the virus.
Rapid coronavirus tests that Britain spent more than £600million on could pick up as few as three per cent of people infected with the virus, a study has suggested.
A trial of the Innova Tried & Tested lateral flow test on students at the University of Birmingham raises some serious questions about the value of mass-testing .
The rapid test, which can produce results within 15 minutes and is being widely used in the first phases of Operation Moonshot to test asymptomatic people and curb the spread of the virus, was pitted by officials as a new way to keep cases under control and potentially even release people from self-isolation.
Coronavirus lateral flow tests only pick up 49 per cent of infections because they fail to catch people with low levels of the virus, researchers have found.
The findings of a pilot of 3,199 people has blown a hole in the Government s mass testing strategy, which featured plans to hand out millions of 30-minute tests to allow Britons to go back to living life normally, it was revealed yesterday.
The lateral flow test produced by US-based Innova only pick up 48.89 per cent of active infections, according to a University of Liverpool pilot programme.
It contradicts earlier lab tests, which found the test had an overall sensitivity of 76.8 per cent, rising to 95 per cent in individuals with a high viral load.