Key worker Christiana Raymond was sent a negative Covid result for a test she never took [Source: BBC]
A government-listed COVID testing firm has apologised after issuing certificates showing a negative result to customers who did not take a test.
001Doctor.UK said its laboratory partner had issued an “erroneous batch” of test results.
It is the latest in a series of problems travellers have experienced with private COVID testing firms.
“We fully understand our customers’ frustration and we are sorry they were let down,” said a 001Doctor spokesman.
“The links to any erroneous results were invalidated rapidly, and the supplier responsible for this error has contacted all those [this had an impact on] to apologise.”
Anyone coming to the UK from abroad has to pre-book Covid tests, to be taken on day two and day eight after their arrival.
But a surge in demand in late March led to several of the firms providing the tests scrambling to fulfil the orders they had taken.
Customers were left feeling cheated when tests which cost up to £200 were late or failed to arrive.
001Doctor, in particular, was the target of a tsunami of complaints online.
Shortly afterwards, the company was removed from the Department of Health’s list of suggested providers of day two and day eight tests. But it remains on a government list of providers for general covid testing.
But in recent days, a new problem came to light when customers like Christiana Raymond received Covid results via email.
