Will the Minister confirm whether a positive result from the current COVID-19 PCR tests used in Wales corresponds, beyond reasonable doubt, to a person being infected with the disease?
Answered by Minister for Health and Social Services | Answered on 03/03/2021
A positive test corresponds extremely well with the presence of SARS-CoV2 RNA, indicating that the person is, or has been, infected with the disease. The PCR antigen test used in Wales has an analytic specificity of 99.96%, which means that there would only be approximately four false positive results for every 10,000 tests performed.