US Coronavirus Patient Temporarily Released Due to 'Labeling' Mixup
A coronavirus patient in California was temporarily released from the hospital after a labeling mix-up, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The unidentified woman was one of four people who had shown signs of coronavirus symptoms and had been transported from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to UC San Diego Medical Center for observation, Fox News reported.
The mix-up occurred because the patient’s pseudonyms used on the test labels did not match the ones used by the CDC to protect her privacy, according to UC San Diego Medical Center officials.
“It was an issue with labeling,” Dr. Christopher Braden, the CDC delegate in San Diego, said. “They have their procedures, we have our procedures. They didn’t match exactly.”
When officials first tested the patients, they said all four of the individuals tested negative. Later, they realized the woman’s sample wasn’t included in the tested batch.
“At the time, they were relying on phone conversations to relay test results and the CDC in Atlanta told officials in San Diego that all tests were negative,” a CDC representative said Tuesday.
“The problem was because of differences between San Diego labeling and what the CDC lab accepts, the sample from the woman didn’t even reach testing stage so it was true that all samples that were tested were negative, and it was also true that the woman had COVID-19 [coronavirus] because her sample was not tested.”
The woman was on her way back to the Marine Corps base with the other quarantined evacuees when officials received a text message that she had tested positive. The three passengers who were traveling with her are now isolated at Miramar and considered to be at medium risk.
The woman’s positive test makes her the 13th confirmed case of coronavirus in the United States.
After the woman was returned to the hospital, UC San Diego Medical Center officials and the CDC discussed protocol in “excruciating detail” so the mishap doesn’t happen again.
This might not be enough for the other evacuees, though. The other quarantined patients at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar started a petition to share suggestions for “critical measures toward mitigating the potential risk of spreading the virus at the Miramar Center,” KNSD-TV reported.
“A lot of sentiment has been expressed that we need to make some suggestions and get some feedback,” quarantined patient Jake Wilson said.
“We really felt the need for these basic things to be addressed, and we hope that the petition would at least be able to address these basic concerns,” he said.
Wilson told KNSD that he is worried about cross-contamination and that there are no personal testing kits available. Testing only consists of one temperature reading a day and voluntary admission of symptoms.
The petition includes five suggestions: mandatory testing of everyone in the facility, prevention of large group gatherings, delivery of personal protective gear and in-room disinfection, availability of hand sanitizer at the front desk and playground, and disinfection of public areas two or three times a day.
“The people are really worried, not just about themselves here at the facility and the cross-contamination,” Wilson said.
“They don’t want to bring this virus back out into the public and potentially infect their families whenever they’re released,” he said.
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