Rapid Tests, False Negatives

Marvin Manzanero

The quarantine process of persons entering Belize is working to contain the spread of the virus, but there is growing concern over the effectiveness of rapid tests, especially as it relates to the future reopening of borders and the P.G.I.A. to international visitors.  News Five has been able to confirm that both patients nineteen and twenty-one had tested negative, using a rapid test mechanism, prior to their return to the Jewel.  However, when they were swabbed in Belize and a comprehensive test conducted, the results returned positive for COVID-19. We asked Director of Health Services Doctor Marvin Manzanero what this means especially for the fate of reopening the airports for tourism and other visitors.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“Patient number nineteen, we still don’t know what rapid test he had done. He has already one negative sample; I can tell you that much and he is going to be swabbed again today. If he is negative again today, he would have had two negatives and then that would have put him as somebody who has recovered. Patient number twenty-one and the two other [American] nationals that arrived, we do have rapid tests that they did. It does say on the note that we got from them that those have not been cleared by the FDA, but nonetheless that’s what they are doing in the Houston area. One of those is a false negative; that’s one of three at least. So that gives you a gauge, a measuring stick if you will, in terms of where you go with rapid tests. But it doesn’t go away from the literature that has indicated that in point of fact, you can have a good amount of false negatives.”