Researchers believe that "abnormal" purchases of PCR lab equipment in Wuhan in the summer of 2019 suggest Covid was spreading "virulently" in the city far earlier than was previously thought.
The ONS has admitted it has been reporting PCR tests as positive when only a single coronavirus gene is detected, despite this being against the manufacturer instructions that two or more genes must be found.
Mass testing in schools as children returned this week is resulting in hundreds of positives – but viral prevalence is now so low that the large majority of them are wrong and result in children and their contacts isolating needlessly.
