HomeCOVID-19Florida Department of Health mandates reporting of cycle threshold values for PCR tests

Florida Department of Health mandates reporting of cycle threshold values for PCR tests

December 6, 2020

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

The Florida Department of Health quietly sent out a memo by email on Friday afternoon, mandating that “Cycle threshold (CT) values and their reference ranges, as applicable, must be reported by laboratories to FDOH via electronic laboratory reporting or by fax immediately.”

The full memo can be read here.

The most common type of COVID-19 testing uses a technology called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in which a sample is doubled until the amount of viral material exceeds a threshold. The cycle threshold is the value at which the sample exceeds the threshold, and various scientific papers recommend a maximum of 25-34 cycles to detect viral material that can be grown in culture (thus more likely to indicate that the patient is infectious). It is common for COVID-19 tests to run 38-40 doubling cycles, resulting in some unknown number of positive results for people who are not infectious.

It is unclear whether these results will be publicized or whether this is a first step toward changing the definition of a COVID-19 case in Florida.

  • This memo was very interesting. FDOH is trying to clean up the testing phase from the unreliable aspects of their reporting to date. And that’s a good approach.

    As we only have limited information to challenge this reporting process, the Jenn and Len Team has brought us a much more evaluative basis to help examine truth in reporting.

    Positive test are reported each day by the so called media as well as the deaths and hospitalizations. None have broken it down as this Team has done.

    Thanks for what you are doing and stay the course!

  • Since last July the CDC has confessed that a bacteria, cold or flu virus could cause a positive Covid-19 PCR report … Under limitations on page 40: – “This test cannot rule out diseases caused by other bacterial or viral pathogens.” – https://bit.ly/37A3tOs

  • Excellent news. It’d be great to see CT values and their reference ranges reported everywhere, across the USA, Canada, and the world – and, then, it’s important to ensure that cycles are kept under 35 so we can start to see more genuine, reliable, numbers. Our media is failing to serve as a check and balance. Kudos to the Florida Department of Health for taking this initiative.

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