PCR testing
Tess made this Official Information request to Ministry of Health
Response to this request is long overdue. By law Ministry of Health should have responded by now (details and exceptions). The requester can complain to the Ombudsman.
From: Tess
Dear Ministry of Health,
All requests are in relation to the PCR testing.
1. Please provide the evidence that the PCR test for COVID-19 is effective at detecting SARs-COV-2.
2. At what cycle threshold (ct) value do false positives begin to occur? Please provide the percentage of false positives including the mentioned ct value and each ct value thereafter that is used here in New Zealand.
3. When testing for COVID-19 will it pick up other variants of COVID-19, other coronavirus’s and other bacterial infections?
Yours faithfully,
T.M
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora Tess,
Thank you for your request for official information received on 18
September 2021 for:
"1. I need you to provide me the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty data
that shows:
A. The effectiveness in stopping or slowing the transmission of covid-19
B. The effectiveness in reducing symptoms of covid-19 C. The effectiveness
of the Pfizer vaccine against other strains preferably the Delta strain.
2. Please provide the information that has shown the Pfizer COVID-19
vaccine Comirnaty to be safe in the 12 year to 16 year old age group that
has been used in the decision making to allow 12 to 16 year olds to get
it.
3. Please provide the information that provided evidence to award the
decision of the face covering mandate and shows its safety and
effectiveness against contraction and transmission of a virus.”
A secondary request for official information was received on 19 September
2021 for:
1. Please provide the evidence that the PCR test for COVID-19 is
effective at detecting SARs-COV-2.
2. At what cycle threshold (ct) value do false positives begin to occur?
Please provide the percentage of false positives including the mentioned
ct value and each ct value thereafter that is used here in New Zealand.
3. When testing for COVID-19 will it pick up other variants of COVID-19,
other coronavirus’s and other bacterial infections?
The Ministry's reference number for your request is: H202112578.
As required under the Official Information Act 1982, the Ministry will
endeavour to respond to your request no later than 15 October 2021, being
20 working days after the day your first request was received.
Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic response, the Ministry is experiencing
significantly higher volumes of queries and requests for information. If
we are unable to respond to your request within this time frame, we will
notify you of an extension of that time frame.
If you have any queries related to this request, please do not hesitate to
get in touch.
Ngâ mihi
OIA Services
Government Services
Office of the Director-General
Ministry of Health
E: [1][email address]
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