Research and analysis

GOS: Impact of false positives and negatives, 3 June 2020

Paper prepared by the Government Office for Science (GOS) for the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).

Documents

Impact of false-positives and false-negatives in the UK’s COVID-19 RT-PCR testing programme, 3 June 2020

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Details

Paper by GOS on the impact of false-positives and false-negatives in the UK’s COVID-19 RT-PCR testing programme. It was considered at SAGE 41 on 11 June 2020.

It should be viewed in context: the paper was the best assessment of the evidence at the time of writing. The picture is developing rapidly and, as new evidence or data emerges, SAGE updates its advice accordingly.

Therefore, some of the information in this paper may have been superseded and the author’s opinion or conclusion may since have developed.

These documents are released as pre-print publications that have provided the government with rapid evidence during an emergency. These documents have not been peer-reviewed and there is no restriction on authors submitting and publishing this evidence in peer-reviewed journals.

Published 26 June 2020
Last updated 13 May 2022 + show all updates
  1. Added HTML version for accessibility purposes.

  2. First published.