Some coronavirus testing kits sent around the world are not working properly

News
By published
A doctor filling out a form
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

As experts hustled to create diagnostic testing kits for the novel coronavirus, something went awry. At least some of the testing kits that were sent across the U.S. and to dozens of other countries aren't working properly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced during a news conference today (Feb. 12).

Last week, the CDC had begun to ship about 200 testing kits to labs across the U.S. and 200 more to over 30 other countries so that more facilities could conduct testing for the new coronavirus. Each kit could test about 700 to 800 samples, the CDC announced last week. 

The reason was "to try to bring the testing closer to patients," said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in today's news conference. These kits could potentially avoid the delays that happen when labs have to send their samples to the CDC for testing, she said.

But as part of normal procedure, state officials were doing quality-control testing on the kits and several of them identified "inconclusive" lab results, she said. 

The CDC is working closely with the states to correct the issues in the testing kits, Messonnier said. "During a response like this we know things may not always go as smoothly as we like."

"The mishap was unfortunate but we have corrected this from happening again in the future by adding additional quality control," Messonnier added. That patient is one of 13 currently known to be infected with the new coronavirus in the U.S.

Originally published on Live Science. 

Yasemin Saplakoglu
Yasemin Saplakoglu
Staff Writer

Yasemin is a staff writer at Live Science, covering health, neuroscience and biology. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Science and the San Jose Mercury News. She has a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Connecticut and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.