In Brief: Reducing testing errors

Measures are in place to minimise errors in Covid-19 testing, said the Health Ministry's director of medical services, Associate Professor Kenneth Mak.

For example, those administering swab tests are properly trained and there is a quality assurance programme within each lab to make sure it is well monitored, he said.

Last week, the ministry said 33 cases had turned out to be false positives upon retesting.

The error had arisen because a test kit used on a lab machine had not been optimally calibrated. This meant that results were not interpreted correctly.

"False error rates can be significant because they may lead to... a person assumed not to have an infection but who was in fact infectious. And therefore, we aim to keep these rates as low as is possible," said Prof Mak.

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Resumption of travel

Singapore's discussions with various other countries on lifting travel restrictions are under way, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said.

But it is too early to say which country will be the first that Singapore will resume cross-border travel with, or whether this can happen next month.

Singapore and the countries it is in talks with are clear that such restrictions should be lifted in a safe and controlled manner, he added.

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Contact tracing

Different technical solutions are being looked at to improve contact tracing, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, adding that there is no hurry to make contact-tracing apps like TraceTogether mandatory.

"We want to identify what's the best possible solution and then eventually scale that solution through the rest of the population," he said.

Discussions are on with Apple and Google to look at how TraceTogether can be made more effective. The authorities are also looking at solutions for those who may not be smartphone users, such as using wearable dongles.