All About Rapid COVID-19 Tests: When to Use Them and How They Work

This assistance applies to all scientific and culturally responsive, accessible, and offered consumer usages of antigen tests and is not specific to any particular age group. This guidance incorporates factors to consider for individuals who are totally vaccinated and ought to be utilized in conjunction with CDC's Interim Public Health Recommendations for Totally Immunized Individuals. Antigen Evaluating for SARS-Co, V-2 General Assistance Antigen tests are frequently utilized in the medical diagnosis of respiratory pathogens, including influenza infections and breathing syncytial infection.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has actually granted emergency usage permission (EUA) for antigen tests that can recognize SARS-Co, V-2. See FDA's list of In Vitro Diagnostics EUAsexternal icon. Antigen tests are immunoassays that identify the presence of a specific viral antigen, which indicates current viral infection. Antigen tests are presently licensed to be performed on nasopharyngeal or nasal swab specimens placed directly into the assay's extraction buffer or reagent.

See Table 1 for additional information about antigen tests. Antigen tests are relatively inexpensive, and many can be used at the point-of-care. The majority of the presently licensed tests return results in roughly 1530 minutes. Antigen tests for SARS-Co, V-2 are generally less sensitive than real-time reverse transcription polymerase domino effect (RT-PCR) and other nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for identifying the presence of viral nucleic acid.

Proper analysis of both antigen test results and NAATs (when indicated) is necessary for precise clinical management of patients or individuals with thought COVID-19, or for identification of contaminated people when used for screening. The scientific performance of diagnostic tests largely depends upon the situations in which they are used.

Because antigen tests perform best in symptomatic people and within a certain variety of days considering that sign start, antigen tests are utilized often on individuals who are symptomatic. Keep Checking Back Here may be helpful in diagnostic testing situations in which the person has a known exposure to an individual with COVID-19.

See FDA's recommendations for health care service providers utilizing SARS-Co, V-2 diagnostic tests for screening asymptomatic people for COVID-19external icon. Likewise see info from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the Upgraded CLIA SARS-Co, V-2 Molecular and Antigen Point of Care Test Enforcement Discretionpdf iconexternal icon. Antigen tests have actually been utilized for screening testing for COVID-19 in congregate housing settings, such as nursing homes.