HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority (HA) has apologized for a mix-up involving coronavirus test results for six members of the public. 

The HA has contracted a test service vendor since July to arrange COVID-19 tests in a bid to tie in with the "Enhanced Laboratory Surveillance Programme" of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health, a spokesperson for the HA said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

The HA has confirmed with the CHP that the six patients concerned have already been admitted under isolation treatment. Patient management is not affected and no patient has unduly stayed in the community.

Spokesperson for the Hospital Authority, Hong Kong

Members of the public who tested negative were notified of the results via SMS message. 

The spokesperson said the HA was informed by the vendor on Wednesday that a discrepancy in personal identification information was found during the SMS message handling process. As a result, six people who had tested positive received other people's negative test results, the spokesperson said.

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The six people were among a total of 2,972 participants involved in the incident.

Upon notification of the error, the HA immediately contacted the CHP to follow up with the six patients concerned.

The spokesperson said the mix-up had not delayed treatment of the six patients, who had been notified by the CHP of their positive results separately.

"All cases tested positive are reported to the CHP separately through an established mechanism. The CHP will inform the patients and arrange their admission for treatment,” the spokesperson explained.

“The HA has confirmed with the CHP that the six patients concerned have already been admitted under isolation treatment. Patient management is not affected and no patient has unduly stayed in the community."

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The vendor has sent clarification SMS messages to the remaining recipients to amend the personal identification information and to reconfirm the test results. The vendor has verified that no other positive test results were notified as negative cases wrongly, the spokesperson said.

The HA is very concerned about the incident, which has been reported to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, the spokesperson said.

“The HA has requested the vendor to review the system and to fix the error so as to avoid the occurrence of similar incident,” the spokesperson added.