Utah halts rapid tests amid concerns about false negatives

By SAM METZ
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah is stopping the use of rapid COVID-19 tests after an analysis showed a widely used brand of antigen tests often yielded false negatives. Officials say that since the state started using rapid tests manufactured by GenBody, more than half the times that PCR tests came back positive, the GenBody rapid tests yielded negative results. Reports of the false negatives come as states throughout the country experiences an omicron variant-fueled surge. Federal health officials say rapid tests can be less accurate at detecting the omicron variant. Utah officials said they haven’t observed a correlation between false negatives and any particular variant.