Due to mislabeling, about 1,000 Oahu residents told to re-test for COVID-19

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - In the latest coronavirus blunder, officials say about 1,000 people will need to get re-tested because vials weren’t labeled.

In an email Sunday evening, a Health and Human Services official said, “At one of the sites, the non-eTrueNorth staff who were responsible for putting patient identifiers on the vials, did not do so for approximately 1,000 vials and the vials arrived at the lab with no patient identifiers on the vials.”

The labs validate each specimen by matching patient information on the voucher to the information on the vials. In this case, the vial information was missing.

Affected patients were told their results were “inconclusive,” and they would needed to be re-tested.

“There were an additional 500 vials that had some patient identifiers on the vials and the lab was able to match that information with the information on the voucher and processed those specimens,” the spokesperson added.

Details are developing. This story will be updated.

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