A text message mistakenly sent a COVID-19 positive test result from a clinic in Singapore to a senior citizen. Unfortunately, it took a week before the clinic confirmed that she was actually negative from the novel coronavirus.
Text Message Mistakenly Sends COVID-19 Positive Test Result
As per StraitsTimes, Madam Tan Poh Choo, a 70-year-old citizen of Singapore, got a text message from My Family Clinic, claiming that she was positive for COVID-19 last Oct. 2.
However, the senior citizen noted that she had not paid any visit to the My Family Clinic recently. In fact, the last time that she went to the said clinic was last June.
On top of that, Choo also claimed that she did not feel any body pain, as well as any other COVID-19 symptoms.
However, she still lived in fear for a week as the clinic has yet to confirm that she is indeed negative from the virus.
COVID-19 Positive Test Result False Alarm
It turns out that the St George's Road branch of My Family Clinic mixed up a positive result of another patient from a PCR test.
That said, after two days since the text message of the mistaken COVID-19 test result, the staff of the clinic went on to notify Choo about the mistake via a phone call on Oct. 4.
However, it is worth noting that the clinic only gave the senior citizen a confirmation last Oct. 9, saying that she did not actually contract the virus.
As such, Choo was forced to stay at the isolation facility of Singapore on Oct. 5 until there was an official confirmation from the clinic, wherein she cried while packing her things.
Clinic's Response to False Positive Result
My Family Clinic told The Straits Times in the same report that the mix-up of test results was due to two reasons: the countless number of patients and the identical names.
However, the clinic further claimed that their staff immediately reached out to Choo regarding the mistake.
On top of that, the clinic staff also visited her a couple of times for her support and to answer her questions.
Mistaken COVID-19 Test Result
The mistaken text message alerting a senior citizen about a positive COVID test result is not the first of its kind.
For instance, according to the report of Reuters, last May 19, 2020, the Asian country offered its apology to a total of 357 previous COVID-19 patients, which notified them that they had contracted the virus for the second time.
The health ministry of Singapore explained that an error in its IT system mistakenly sent false text messages to hundreds of former patients.
However, during that time, the error was retracted to its recipients in a few hours.
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Written by Teejay Boris
