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SINGAPORE – A total of 233 Covid-19 swab samples were accidentally disposed of before they were tested, following lapses at a private medical laboratory.
The batch was collected from clinics under the Swab-and-Send-Home (Sash) programme. The test samples were “inadvertently discarded (of) prior to testing” at the lab, a spokesman for Quest Laboratories told The Straits Times on Monday (Oct 12).
Under the Sash programme, patients who meet certain criteria are swabbed and then sent home to wait for their test results. Their swab samples are sent to a lab, where testing can take up to three working days.
The incident at Quest Laboratories happened last Wednesday and was discovered two days later when clinics began contacting the lab to ask about the test results for these patients.
The lab spokesman noted that no other sample batches were affected.
One of the lapses involved an in-house courier who did not follow standard operating procedure (SOP) when handing over the untested samples to the lab and this resulted in the batch being disposed of alongside old samples, said the lab spokesman.
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