Efficient testing is critical for diagnosing and containing the spread of coronavirus and for Covid tests to be efficient, they need to be fast, accurate, inexpensive and able to be used without the need for highly-trained people.
Antigen tests, often referred to as rapid antigen tests, are one of the most common types of Covid tests. They look for proteins on the surface of the virus to ensure the presence of the pathogen. The tests work by mixing the sample that has been provided with a solution and that is then applied to a paper strip that contains an antibody optimised to bind these proteins if they are present. Then, just like a home pregnancy test, the result is displayed as a band across the paper strip.
You don’t require a lab to undertake a Covid rapid antigen test, and it can be done in just 30 minutes. However, because of this speed, it means the test can be prone to false-negative results if a person taking the test has low amounts of the virus in their body, though they will generally have a low false positive rate.
Government is keen to use Covid rapid antigen tests for mass vaccination campaigns because of their speed and affordability. However these limitations in terms of accuracy mean that it is key to not use negative results in working environments that present a higher risk of contagion. Although rapid antigen tests are good for catching those with high viral loads, it remains unclear what the viral threshold should be to stop the spread of the virus.
The FlowFlex Antigen Rapid Covid Test Kit, available at Work & Wear Direct, offers excellent performance compared to molecular PCR methods and is a convenient and easy to use testing kit which can detect a positive or negative COVID
results in just 15 minutes. Take a look at the range of affordable healthcare products for the workplace available to buy online at Work & Wear Direct.
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