133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
15 September 2021
Chirag Patel
By email:
[FYI request #16451 email] Ref:
H202110925
Tēnā koe Chirag
Response to your request for official information Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) to the Ministry of
Health (the Ministry) on 18 August 2021 for information regarding PCR tests in New Zealand.
I will respond to each part of your request in turn.
“However can you inform me, on what my Cycle Threshold is if I get tested at 25 Druces
Road, Wiri, Auckland? And:
Also can you inform me whether the Ministry of Health has a constant Cycle threshold
value to test the New Zealand public?
And at what level of Cycle threshold (CT) value does the Ministry of Health not go above
to insure there are zero false positive cases?”
The Institute for Environmental Science and Research (ESR) advises that for the RT-PCR
assays being used in New Zealand laboratories, the number of cycles for which the assays run
is 40. The number of cycles for which any RT-PCR assay runs is a pre-programmed parameter
in the software of the analyser used for the test and cannot be changed by the individual
laboratories using the assays. Regardless of when the threshold is reached, the assay will run
for the full 40 cycles.
As above, the Ct value is also determined by the test manufacturer and cannot be altered by the
laboratory performing the test. This number has not been changed by the manufacturers since
COVID-19 testing commenced in New Zealand.
“And what brand and what businesses are the PCR testing instruments from?”
A list of the companies that supply COVID-19 PCR testing kits in New Zealand is listed below,
including publicly available information on each company’s testing kit:
• Roche Diagnostics:
www.diagnostics.roche.com/global/en/products/params/cobas-sars-
cov-2-test.html
• Abbott:
www.molecular.abbott/us/en/products/infectious-disease/RealTime-SARSCoV-2-
Assay
• Hologic:
www.hologic.com/coronavirus-test • Thermo Fisher:
www.thermofisher.com/au/en/home/clinical/clinicalgenomics/pathogendetectionsolutions
/sars-cov-2-covid-19.html
• dnature:
www.dnature.co.nz/ • MiRXES Pte Ltd:
https://mirxes.com
I trust this information fulfils your request. Under section 28(3) of the Act you have the right to
ask the Ombudsman to review any decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may
be contacted by email at:
[email address] or by calling 0800 802 602.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases/responses-official-
information-act-requests. Nāku noa, nā
Nick Allan
Manager OIA Services
Office of the Director-General
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