You asked
Please can you provide the UK operational false positive rate for the PCR testing.
We said
Thank you for your request.
The results reported from the COVID-19 Infection Survey are directly from the test, and no test is perfect. There will be false-positives and false-negatives from the test, and false-negatives could also come from the fact that participants in this study are self-swabbing.
While we do not know the true sensitivity and specificity of the test because COVID-19 is a new virus, our data and related studies provide an indication of what these are likely to be. To understand the potential impact, we have estimated what prevalence would be in two scenarios using different possible test sensitivity and specificity rates.
You can find more information on these scenarios in our methodology article, accessible via the following link: Methodology article.