London, July 3: While the world is taking all the possible precautions to stay far away from the coronavirus as much as possible, some school going children in the United Kingdom have found a bizarre way to generate fake ‘positive’ result in a COVID-19 lateral flow test by pouring few drops of orange juice in it. The trend, which is gaining a lot of attention and raising concern, become popular after Tik Tok videos showing the same went viral. COVID-19 Testing: Now Swab Samples From Mobile Phone Screens Can Detect Coronavirus.
The pupils pour a few drops of orange juice or lemon juice in order to obtain a fake positive coronavirus result by using a lateral flow test.Several other edible items including soft drinks, tomato ketch-up among others can also be used to generate the fake result. The outcome of the test is confirmed to be positive on a lateral flow test if two lines appear in the strip otherwise the sample is negative. COVID-19 Fact Check Series: From Holding Breath For 10 Seconds As ‘Self-Check Test’ to ‘COVID-19 Three Stages’ Treatment Falsely Linked to Tata Health, 5 Fake Social Media Messages That Have Returned From 2020.
The worrying question now arise is that whether the fruit juices contain coronavirus? Several reports suggest that it is not the case. An experiment by Guardian says that that the fake positive coronavirus test result ” appears to be linked to its acidity, which essentially breaks the test.” So the acid level in the fluid is likely the cause of the double lines on the lateral flow test, rather than coronavirus.
(The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Jul 03, 2021 11:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).
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