Study Finds False-Positives in Over 40% of Positive COVID Results From Sample of 900,000 Rapid Tests

Positive (L) and negative COVID-19 rapid antigen tests are pictured in Calgary, Alberta, on Jan. 4, 2022. Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

A new study reveals that more than 40 percent of the positive results from a large sample of rapid antigen tests are false-positives, a finding that comes at a time when provinces are increasingly relying on the rapid tests to form COVID-19 response strategies.

The study, conducted by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on Jan. 7, 2022. The researchers studied the results of roughly 900,000 rapid antigen tests taken in over 530 workplaces across Canada between Jan. 11 and Oct. 13, 2021.