Sweden uncovers 3,700 false positives from Covid-19 test kit: Spain calls in army to fight virus pandemic

MADRID: Spain will call in the army to help identify those who have been exposed to people infected with coronavirus as part of efforts to curb the spread of the disease, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday.

The central government will make 2,000 soldiers who are trained in tracking available to the regions, which are responsible for health care, to assist in tracking cases and stem a rise in infections, he told a news conference.

Many experts have blamed a lack of virus trackers for a surge in Covid-19 infections in several Spanish regions such as Madrid and Catalonia.

Sanchez also announced that regional authorities could ask the central government to apply a state of emergency, which would allow it to limit people’s movements, on part or all of its territory.

The central government declared a nationwide state of emergency in mid-March which allowed it to impose one of the world’s strictest lockdowns. It was only fully lifted on June 21.

While the rise in infections in Spain is "worrying", it is "far from the situation in mid-March", Sanchez said.

"We can’t let the pandemic to once again take control of our lives... we must take control and halt this second curve."

Infections have risen sharply since Spain lifted the lockdown, but deaths have been much lower than during the epidemic’s peak.

The country has more than 400,000 confirmed cases of the respiratory disease, the highest in western Europe, and one of the fastest growth rates on the continent.

Nearly 29,000 people have died, one of the world’s highest tolls.

Meanwhile, Sweden’s Public Health Agency said on Tuesday, a faulty test kit had returned some 3,700 false positive results, an error discovered by two laboratories during routine quality controls. The agency said the PCR kits, which test for an ongoing Covid-19 infection, were made in China by the company BGI Genomics and had been distributed worldwide.

In Sweden, the kits were used by people conducting at-home tests between period March and August, the agency said.

Mostly, "people who had mild symptoms or who didn’t feel any symptoms at the time of the test received false positive results," the agency said in a statement.

It added that it would contact those affected this week, as well as adjusting Sweden’s official number of cases.

"The faulty test kit has been reported to the Swedish Medical Products Agency. It has been exported by China to many other countries," the agency said, adding that it has "informed relevant authorities in Europe and the WHO".

Sweden on Tuesday said it had 86,891 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 5,814 deaths.