Freedom of Information request on the number of amplification cycles testing cycles were instructed to do in November 2020 and March 2021 (FOI 21-584)
Published 13 August 2021
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8th June 2021 FOI 21/584
Dear
Thank you for your information request, dated 28/05/2021, where you asked for ‘How many amplification cycles were testing Labs in the UK instructed to do in November 2020? And how many cycles were they doing in March 2021 ?
Has the number of amplification cycles ever changed during the years 2020 and 2021 ?’
I can confirm that we do not have access to the information that you have requested and it is likely that it will vary between laboratories depending on the instructions for use of the different assays that they use. You may wish to direct this FOI request to NHS Test and Trace who should be able to confirm this.
You may find the distribution of CT values in figure S6 of the following manuscript infectivity_manuscript_20210119_with_figures (ox.ac.uk) useful, as they seem to suggest that small changes to the upper cut-off value will have little overall effect on the number of patients diagnosed with COVID. The vast majority of patients within this example have CT values of <30, with very few >35.
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