The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) rapid antigen test recently procured by the Ministry of Health (MoH) will be used in hospitals around the country according to Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony.
During an update on Tuesday, Anthony disclosed that the antigen tests will be introduced later this week to hospitals in every region.
“We are adding these tests because it would allow the doctors and other health care personnel to have something where they can check people immediately. It would also be used in our hospital [because] a lot of times doctors are skeptical about admitting patients because they need to know their status and when you wait 24 hours you have to put the patient in a transition area and wait until you are certain,” he explained.
The Minister had previously said that the antigen tests would be used in the hinterland.
Meanwhile, Anthony noted that the introduction of these tests will reduce waiting time as patients would be able to get their results in twenty minutes. If these patients test positive, he added, they would be isolated immediately.
In addition, he posited that these new tests will allow hospitals to return to some sort of normalcy. He related that the staff at the Georgetown Public Hospital were trained to administer these tests on Monday and training of hospital staff for other regions was to commence yesterday. The newly-trained personnel will then be tasked with taking the test kits to the various hospitals.
Dr Anthony disclosed that the ministry has procured enough antigen tests to last for a 3 to 4-month period. An antigen test costs roughly US$12.
According to the Minister, the antigen test identifies fragments of COVID-19 and will give an almost immediate result if a person is infected with the virus. He added that it is important to note that these antigen tests are looking for the virus or antigens which is unlike the rapid antibody test.
