A number of individuals in the Western Isles who were diagnosed with covid-19 have returned negative results after being retested said NHS Western Isles.
In recent days they were told they tested positive for the virus.
Their original swabs had been sent to a laboratory in Glasgow.
They provided fresh samples within the islands which were confirmed as negative after being checked out at the NHS Western Isles laboratory in Stornoway.
However, they will be included as positive cases in the Scottish Government official statistics.
The error came about because the mainland laboratory system is designed to provide rapid results for a large number of screening tests.
“Positive” island cases are retested
2 January 2021
