Hundreds given false-negative COVID results in Australia

Hundreds of people were incorrectly told they were negative for COVID-19 by a lab in Sydney, Australia, the BBC reports. 

The false-negative results were given over the Christmas season amid skyrocketing cases, according to the report Monday.

The "data processing error" occurred as Australian health officials are reporting a massive backlog in swabbing tests.

The mistake by SydPath lab affected 886 people, but earlier this week, the lab initially only admitted to giving false-negative results to about 400 people on Christmas Day. 

The lab has since apologized and said it has switched to more reliable testing methods.