A surprising number of patients have obvious symptoms but still test negative, say doctors False-negative results from coronavirus tests are becoming an increasing concern, say doctors trying to diagnose patients and get a grip on the outbreak, as a surprising number of people show up with obvious symptoms only to be told by the tests that they don’t have the disease.
While still more research is necessary to determine the true prevalence of such false-negative results, experts agree that the problem is significant.
False negatives not only impede the diagnosis of disease in individual patients and an accurate understanding of the extent of its proliferation, but also risk patients who think they aren't ill further spreading the virus.