12 people infected with the coronavirus were falsely told they'd tested negative — and at least one was hospitalized

• A dozen people tested for the coronavirus in Delaware were incorrectly told they tested negative by the state department of health — and at least one man is now hospitalized.
• Delaware's Health and Social Services department said the 12 individuals were initially told over the phone that their test results came back negative due to "an internal DPH system error."
• Kevin Evans, a Delaware resident who was told he was negative on July 21, was hospitalized two days later.

A dozen people tested for the coronavirus in Delaware were initially incorrectly told they tested negative by the state department of health — and at least one man is now hospitalized.

Delaware's Health and Social Services department said the 12 individuals, who were all infected with the virus, were told over the phone that their test results came back negative due to "an internal DPH system error."

"In partnership with Walgreens, 2,791 samples were collected for processing through the Delaware Public Health Lab in the first week of testing. In the process of results delivery, 12 persons who tested positive for COVID-19 were inadvertently given negative results by phone due to an internal DPH system error," the department said in a statement to CNN.

The department noted that there weren't any issues with the sample collection at the three Walgreens locations where tests were conducted.

Kevin Evans, a Delaware resident, and his family were all tested for Covid-19 after one of his three daughters tested positive on July 17. Kevin and his wife, Katey, were informed that Kevin and their daughter who'd previously tested positive both tested negative on July 21. But Kevin's health continued to deteriorate and he was hospitalized on July 23rd.

"At 2 o'clock in the morning, he woke up and he was vomiting," Katey Evans said in a video she posted on Facebook. "He got really dehydrated in the middle of the night, he got very dizzy, he was in and out of consciousness, and at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning, I said, I think you need to go to the hospital."

While Katey was waiting in the parking lot outside the hospital when she received a call from hospital staff informing her that the results from her husband's Walgreens test were actually positive and were relayed to her incorrectly.

Katey got in touch with a local elected official, State Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, to explain the situation and Pettyjohn contacted the state health department. The family was later informed that their daughter's negative test was also incorrect.

State officials said that after reviewing all 2,791 samples gathered at the Walgreens locations, it determined that no one was given a false-positive diagnosis.