Hong Kong Financial Secretary (FS) Paul Chan was listed as a COVID-19 “recovered case” after returning to Hong Kong from an overseas trip. As such, he did not require isolation and immediately attended the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit. However, after the summit, the Hong Kong Government (HKgov) announced that Chan had tested positive. However, the government didn’t announce Chan’s cycle threshold (Ct) value and refused to respond to enquiries.
When testing for the presence of a virus, amplification cycles are used to increase the amount of viral RNA in the sample to a level that is detectable. This is called the cycle threshold or Ct value. When there is more RNA present to begin with, fewer cycles are required to reach the detection threshold. Thus, the Ct value is the cut-off that calls a test positive. This ensures that the PCR test is detecting the virus and is not a false positive….