London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

School Covid tests: pupils in England 'very likely' to get false positives

School Covid tests: pupils in England 'very likely' to get false positives

Children who test positive on lateral flow tests will have to self-isolate even if later PCR test is negative

Plans to test schoolchildren in England with controversial lateral flow tests have been thrown into disarray after it emerged it was “very likely” children and their parents would be asked to self-isolate unnecessarily.

Every pupil who received a positive test result after taking a rapid lateral flow device (LFD) test at school should check their result against a so-called gold-standard laboratory test – known as a PCR test – due to the fact that the LFD result was just as likely to be a false positive as a true positive, a leading statistician has said.

“All LFD positives should be subject to PCR confirmation when we are asking all children to undergo such testing,” Prof Sheila Bird, a member of the Royal Statistical Society, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. She said it was “very likely” a positive LFD result would be false. “The concern is that the void rate with LFDs is about as high as the positive rate. About as many tests are void as test positive … It may be you’ve taken them badly or the kit has performed badly.”

Secondary pupils returning to classrooms in England on Monday will be asked to undertake three initial LFD tests at school which, because staff are trained to guide children taking the tests, is deemed to be an “assisted test centre”.

When the LFD test is taken at an “assisted test centre” such as a school, the Department for Education confirmed that children who “falsely” test positive – ie they subsequently take and receive a negative PCR test – are not allowed to stop self-isolating and return to school.

A DfE spokesperson said: “As has always been the case, a negative PCR test does not release an individual from self-isolation requirements.”

He added: “Individuals with a positive LFD test result from an assisted test site will need to self-isolate in line with the guidance for households with possible coronavirus infection.”

This means that, next week, schools will have no choice but to inform families that a negative result with the gold-standard PCR test does not override the “false positive” LFD result, when it is taken at a school test site – an oddity that Bird said she was “shocked” by.

“I think there is sufficient capacity to be offering the PCR confirmation for all LFD positives,” she said.

According to the latest NHS-and-trace figures, just 0.24% of lateral flow tests conducted in the week ending 24 February found positive cases – a figure so low it is actually below the 0.32% “false positive rate” for these tests.

“The problem with these lateral flow tests is they’re not sensitive enough to do the job they’re meant to do,” said Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union. “The PCR test is much more reliable so what I’d hope in this situation is schools get evidence of a PCR test and allow the pupils to be in school.”

She said the debacle raised questions around the usefulness of lateral flow tests. “The danger is that young people and children who don’t have Covid are kept off school unnecessarily because of a false positive. And those who have Covid will go to school, because they got a false negative. That is the danger because they are simply not accurate enough.”

Confusingly, pupils who take LFD tests at home – which they will be asked to do twice a week once the school stops testing them – are required to take a PCR test to “confirm the result”, if they receive a positive LFD result. But they are not required to do this if they take the test at school.

One father decided to speak out about the accuracy of LFD tests after his son’s LFD test came back positive. “He doesn’t leave the house, he’s a teenage boy, he shows no symptoms and he’s not unwell,” the man told the Today programme. “The school told us to get a PCR to double check it … The result came back the next day and was negative.

“We spoke to NHS 111 and they said the PCR test was the important one and the LFD was clearly a false positive, and that we should be able to remove the self-isolation through track and trace.”


But they refused to remove the self-isolation order, he said. “Any positive from a PCR or LFD was to be taken as a positive, and there were no exceptions to the rule,” he said. “We’ve got to isolate when we know he’s not unwell.

“If this is ramified across 24,000 schools, even if it’s just one child per school who gets a false positive, that’s 24,000 families who have to self-isolate and can’t work.”

The DfE spokesperson said: “The rapid asymptomatic testing programme for education has been set up to support the return of all students to nurseries, schools and colleges.

“All staff, secondary and college students, their families and the families of primary school children will have access to twice-weekly testing as an additional reassurance on top of the strengthened safety measures in place from 8 March.

“We encourage everyone to consent to testing, following in the footsteps of the staff and students who have already taken millions of tests over the past weeks while schools have been open only to critical worker and vulnerable children.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Bunkers, Billions and Apocalypse: The Secret Compounds of Zuckerberg and the Tech Giants
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
×