[ad_1]
Illinois’ leading doctor on Friday defended the use of rapid antigen tests to detect COVID-19 as reports of false negatives and false positives surfaced across the country, raising questions about accuracy.
In a case that caught the nation’s attention, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted that he had taken four rapid COVID-19 antigen tests on Thursday and received two negative and two positive results.
Musk, who has been dismissive of the coronavirus and its severity, said he had taken two PCR tests, the other type of COVID-19 tests, and was waiting for the results, CNBC reported.
At the Illinois daily coronavirus news briefing on Friday, Dr Ngozi Ezike, director of the state’s public health department, said antigen and PCR tests had accuracy rates greater than 90%, but agreed that PCR tests were the “gold standard”.
PCR tests detect the genetic material of the virus and are much more sensitive than antigen tests, which detect virus-specific proteins and are much faster, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control.
“Take a pregnancy test. You can have a blood test. You can have the one you can get at the drugstore… at the dollar store,” Ezike explained. “You are always going to use it and you know it will give you a reliable result. Are there some cases where it will not be perfect? Yes, it is true, but that does not mean that you are going to give up a positive pregnancy test and say you can’t be pregnant. “
With PCR testing, sometimes results are available the same day, but this is not always the case. Results of rapid antigen tests are often available within 15 to 30 minutes, the CDC said.
“We have a test that is good that will give us accurate results,” Ezike said with reference to rapid antigen testing. “It helps us identify cases even earlier, which is so important when you are trying to have infected people isolated as early as possible instead of spreading them in the meantime while waiting for the PCR result.”
Illinois began distributing rapid antigenic tests from the federal government last month, and Ezike expects more of those tests to be done “we’ll get more likely cases.”
As of Friday, November 6, Illinois health officials began to include “confirmed cases and probable cases combined” under the guidance of the CDC.
Much of the state’s “probable” cases came from an increase in antigen testing across the state, partly causing the shift in reporting, Dr Ezike said.
Governor JB Pritzker on Friday slammed those he said are “some sort of conspiracy” on rapid tests, stressing that the state will use all types of tests available.
“It’s a huge advantage to be able to test a lot of people in a very short period of time,” he added. “So we will take advantage of the fact that the federal government sent us these tests.”
Illinois reported more than 15,000 new confirmed and probable coronavirus cases on Friday, setting a record for the highest single-day report of new cases for the fourth day in a row.
[ad_2]
Source link