A service provider of COVID-19 testing of the Department of Health (DH) reported that human errors were made during data input and uploading, resulting in notifications of negative test results being sent to a wrong mobile number or not being sent. The incident involved 14 deep throat saliva specimens submitted to the DH’s Yuen Chau Kok Chest Clinic on May 6. No positive cases were involved.
The testing service provider concerned, BGI, has reviewed the test results and rectified the registration information. Affected persons will receive SMS messages containing the results of earlier testing re-sent by the system. The incident has no relationship with the accuracy or validity of the testing. The Food and Health Bureau extended apologies to those affected for any inconvenience caused.
In view of the above incident, the Government has issued a warning letter as per the service contract and instructed the service provider to investigate and follow up on the incident seriously, particularly in reviewing the current workflow of data entry and result uploading so as to ensure that relevant improvement measures are duly implemented. The Government will continue to suspend assigning BGI to provide service to any mobile specimen collection stations. Furthermore, the Government will take into account the overall performance of service providers, including their performance in respect of information management as well as the relevant audit mechanism, when making assessments on the awarding of testing services contracts in the future so that there would be no occurrence of similar incidents.
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