Retesting needed after nearly 500 COVID-19 from Ripken Stadium tests discarded

Nearly 500 people will need to be retested for COVID-19 after samples from tests they took at Ripken Stadium last week expired by the time they arrived at a lab.

A Harford County Health Department spokesperson told WJZ-TV that the agency’s primary laboratory experienced a COVID-19 outbreak, so the test samples were sent to a backup lab instead.

But the samples had expired before they got there. About 471 saliva samples taken on Jan. 10 for PCR testing were thrown away as a result.

Rapid antigen tests taken the same day were not affected.

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