A laboratory error has been blamed for more than a dozen false positive cases of COVID-19 at long-term care facilities in Kawartha Lakes.

The area health unit lifted the outbreak at Case Manor in Bobcaygeon Thursday (May 7) after new test results showed there were no positive cases in either the residents or staff.

The outbreak had been declared on April 26 after 12 asymptomatic staff and residents tested positive for COVID-19.

“On May 1, the HKPR District Health Unit was notified by BioTest Laboratories in Ottawa that a technical error prompted the lab to reject all COVID-19 positive test results performed the previous weekend, including the 12 specimens from staff and residents of Case Manor and one test from a resident of Adelaide Place in Lindsay,” reads a media release from the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit.

“There was a concern that these results may have shown a positive test result, when they were negative.”

The individuals at Case Manor were all notified immediately and swabbed again, with the new tests sent to a different lab. Those tests have all returned as negative.

The individual from Adelaide Place was also retested with that new test result also returning as negative. The outbreak at that facility was rescinded on Tuesday (May 5).