A safety notice has been issued to raise awareness about the recall of two batches of antigen tests previously sold in some Irish supermarkets.
The Health Products Regulatory Authority released the alert on Tuesday following the recall of certain Genrui rapid Covid tests earlier this month.
The tests had been on sale in Dunnes Stores and Lidl but were voluntarily suspended from sale by the retailers on January 5.
More than 1,350 reports of false-positive test results had been reported to the HPRA by people who used the Genrui antigen tests.
Two batches of the tests were recalled by the manufacturer after it "identified an issue relating to contamination of the sample diluent", the HPRA said.
These batches, 20211008 and 20211125, are being recalled from affected retailers and members of the public.
The health authority added that retailers in Ireland are advised to continue the voluntary suspension from sale of the Genrui self-test while the recall is ongoing.
In a statement, the HPRA said: "If members of the public have not already returned these self-tests under the voluntary removal from sale, they should immediately identify any Genrui self-tests in their possession with the batch number 20211008 or 20211125.
"These self-tests should not be used and can be returned to the retailer where they were purchased.
"The HPRA is continuing to liaise with the manufacturer and our assessment of the issue remains ongoing."
It added that the safety notice issued on Tuesday will be updated should further information become available.
The statement said that feedback from European authorities indicates that other member states are not experiencing the same high number of reports of false-positive results with the Genrui tests.
However, the product has been temporarily suspended from sale in Spain "as a precautionary measure".
The HPRA said it has not received a high number of reports of false negative or false positive results for other rapid antigen self-tests made by other manufacturers.
The public are advised that they can report incidents with antigen tests or any other medical devices via the HPRA online reporting form.
