European Union scientists have developed a new system that allows laboratories to check the reliability of their coronavirus tests. This new system, developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and presented by the European Commission on Wednesday 1 April, should make it possible to check up to 60 million tests and thus avoid “false negatives”.
The control material is a synthetic, non-infectious part of the virus. “This new equipment has the potential to improve the EU's ability to respond to the virus outbreak and prevent valuable resources from being wasted through inefficient testing”, commented Research and Innovation Commissioner Mariya Gabriel.
The problem of false negatives had been highlighted from the start of the pandemic in China. It was then identified as one of the three main challenges facing laboratories in a study published by several epidemiologists on the open Eurosurveillance platform. This subject was also discussed during the videoconference of the European Commission's Scientific Advisory Committee on 25 March. “The high number of new tests coming onto the market makes it difficult to assess their quality and effectiveness. It was suggested that there could be an EU approach with minimum requirements for testing”, stated the meeting minutes.
Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides called the work of the Joint Research Centre a “major achievement” that will be “crucial for our exit strategy when the time comes to lift social distancing measures”. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)