IATF eyes use of antigen tests to detect COVID-19 — Nograles

MANILA, Philippines — The government’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) task force is studying the use of new technology for detecting the novel coronavirus which can yield results in 30 minutes, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Thursday.

Nograles, co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said they are eyeing antigen tests to further ramp up the country’s testing capacity which he said is currently at 21,000 per day.

“There’s also a new technology, which is also lab-based, but will have a faster turnaround which is the antigen test,” Nograles said in an interview over ANC.

“The antigen test is another technology that we recently discussed in the IATF and we’ve sent it to the technical working group to put forth the literature and the procedures needed for that antigen to be rolled out in our laboratories,” he went on.

Nograles said the antigen test can detect “a part” of the novel coronavirus itself and not just the antibodies one develops which the rapid test kit detects.

“It does not detect the antibody that you develop because you’re infected with the virus but it detects a part of the virus so hindi sya antibody. It’s more active,” he said.

The Food and Drug Administration earlier reportedly said that antigen tests are still not as reliable as the real-time polymerase chain reaction tests which are dubbed as the “gold standard” of COVID-19 testing.

FDA Director-General Eric Domingo, citing the World Health Organization, said the sensitivity of antigen tests vary from 34 percent to 80 percent.

/MUF