Mon, Jun 26th, 2023 - 3:44pm
January 12, 2021 - 9:46pm | By Chris Larson
The North Dakota Department of Health's Public Health Lab is reporting that a software malfunction, on a piece of laboratory equipment, has been identified.
Dr. Christie Massen, Chief Laboratory Officer for the Health Department, says that the discobery was made on January 8, while doing additional testing for further data analysis on another platform. She says there was "a discrepancy in the results," which promopted an "immediate look back," identifying the same issue on previous runs.
The malfunction affected nearly 200 positive COVID-19 test results, which took place from December 25 through January 8. According to the department, the issue has been resolved and the results will be considered inconclusive, with the individuals being notified of the error.
Massen says the lab issues are rare, but the department takes the malfunctions seriously, and works to identify and quickly resolve the issues.
The lab has analyzed more than 900,000 samples since the beginning of the pandemic.
