Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve all had to learn a lot of new vocabulary and terms. Antigen tests are one of the tools that healthcare professionals use to diagnose and screen for SARS-CoV-2. But what exactly are COVID-19 antigen tests and how do they work? We’ll answer this question and more, including taking a look at the pcr covid test vs rapid test, in this short guide.
Despite significant and positive progress, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Therefore, implementing and distributing accurate and timely testing remains imperative when it comes to stopping the spread of the COVID-19 virus and its variants. All forms of COVID-19 testing are vital to halting and preventing viral outbreaks. But how do these tests work and how are you meant to understand the results? As a part of our ongoing blog series, we’re continuing to go through the basics of COVID-19 testing. This blog will specifically focus on COVID-19 antigen tests and how they work in both asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals.
As of March 7, 2021 over 3 million COVID-19 tests were taken in the United States alone, and that number is likely even higher today. With the virus’s many variants still circling the globe, demand for quick and accurate tests is high. The antigen test for Covid19 allows for rapid testing and is in demand, especially the at-home test kits that can give you a result in a matter of minutes. But there is still a prominent question that lingers: “How accurate is a Covid19 antigen test?” Although results may be given quickly, studies have shown that false negatives happen more often with antigen tests than with PCR tests.
You’ve probably heard a lot about COVID-19 testing since the start of 2020, including the fact that there are two different kinds of diagnostic tests to determine if you have an active COVID-19 infection. The quicker of the two kinds of tests is the COVID-19 antigen test, sometimes referred to as the rapid test. But […]
Over a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve learned a lot—and we continue to learn more about this unique virus and how it spreads. Among other points, we’ve learned the importance of access to reliable and accurate testing in stopping the spread. Testing helps diagnose infection, with the goal of reducing asymptomatic (or presymptomatic) transmission and monitoring infection trends.
One factor that has made coronavirus especially hard to eradicate is the changing nature of viruses. Over time, they are able to mutate, resulting in new strains which may be more or less severe than the original strain. Understanding how variants emerge, and how they differ from the original strain of Covid-19, helps inform public safety recommendations.
While Americans spent several months cautiously optimistic that the worst of the pandemic had passed, a new strain of coronavirus has emerged, causing experts to re-assess where we stand in our collective fight against COVID-19. The delta variant, first identified in India in December 2020, has fully reached the U.S., and has become the predominant variant throughout the country.
The Delta variant of COVID-19 is currently making North American headlines as it drives a spike in cases. But in the realm of COVID variants, Delta is actually a little bit of old news. The first Delta variant case was identified in December 2020, and we are almost at the end of 2021.
The Delta variant of COVID-19 has driven a new wave of infections, causing 80-87% of all cases in the United States in the last two weeks of July according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This highly infectious variant has led to widespread concern with many schools reconvening from summer break and people returning to the workplace after a year of remote work.
Viruses are constantly changing through mutation, which leads to new variants of viruses appearing. While some variants persist and spread, others mutate and dissipate rather quickly. In the United States and in other countries throughout the world, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) are tracking the occurrence and rise of various COVID-19 variants. Most recently, we’ve been seeing the rise in Delta variant cases, which was first identified in India in December of 2020.
Health officials around the world are adjusting their plans for combating the coronavirus pandemic in light of the more infectious Delta variant, including concerns that even vaccinated people can contract and spread it. In the United States, for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is once again recommending that everyone, including those who are vaccinated, wear masks indoors in high-risk areas
Testing for COVID19 is extremely important for fighting the spread of the virus. Whereas we typically attribute fighting COVID with vaccines, much of the work globally is done at the testing level: who is infected, how is the virus spreading, and what we learn when the virus grows or diminishes in a given area. All of these questions are answered through testing.
As COVID cases decline, mask mandates end, and the vaccine becomes more widely available beyond at-risk groups, COVID-19 testing gets less attention as a critical health tool. But COVID testing is still entirely necessary, and it will continue to be needed to detect new strains of the virus and prevent unheeded outbreaks.
Though people across the world are receiving vaccines to prevent infection of the coronavirus, different types of COVID tests remain a critical, necessary part of the COVID narrative. And with variant strains seeing pockets of spread, many businesses and public events requiring negative tests, and a portion of the population foregoing or unable to receive a vaccine, the need for testing isn’t going away soon, if ever.
Testing for COVID-19 remains one of the most important strategies for preventing outbreaks and the spread of such a pervasive, volatile virus. It’s how we identify those who could infect others, and it’s also the primary way we learn how the virus spreads and evolves.
Accessible, accurate COVID-19 testing remains one of the most important tools for reducing the spread of the virus and learning more about potential variants. While multiple types of vaccines have become more available—and often receive the most publicity—testing remains critical to identify the most efficient ways to quarantine and stop the virus from spreading to others.
During a pandemic, the most crucial component to understanding and controlling the spread of a virus is by having accessible, accurate testing. For COVID-19, there are two common tests frequently performed to detect and confirm the presence of COVID-19: COVID-19 PCR tests and antigen tests. Both are administered in a similar way, but how they detect components of COVID differ.
Access to effective testing has become an integral part of isolating and limiting the spread of COVID-19. Many people have already taken COVID-19 PCR tests, whether it was to confirm symptoms or pre-screen for a gathering, and have relied on the results to make key decisions for recovery and social interactions. These tests enable the population to keep an eye on active case trends, and determine the best routes forward to further decrease the spread of COVID-19.
Testing for COVID-19 has changed a lot within a relatively short amount of time. You might recall a time when testing required long waits in your vehicle, several days of waiting before receiving results. Now at-home rapid testing is available at most neighborhood pharmacies, straightforward enough you can administer yourself and have results within minutes.
Rapid COVID tests have been crucial for providing quick, affordable testing to be implemented on a large scale. Before rapid tests were available, testing required long waits both at the testing center and to receive your results. This made some people less likely to be tested at all, not to mention the potential for samples to become lost in transit to the laboratory. Rapid testing changed that, and now we can even test from the comfort of our own homes.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term ‘antibodies’ became a little more common, but what does it mean, exactly? The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) describes antibodies as the proteins made by the immune system to fight infections like viruses and may help to ward off future occurrences by those same infections.
Accurate information surrounding COVID-19 testing builds trust with the public so they understand how and why certain tests are being conducted—whether those are rapid tests conducted at home or antibody tests that help researchers learn about the virus. The more testing, the more we know how to prevent further spread and health problems.
There’s been a lot of speculation about what a positive antibody test might mean for COVID-19 and those who may have been previously infected. Des the presence of antibodies definitively mean someone has previously been infected? Can a positive antibody test mean someone is currently infected? Am I immune to COVID19 if my antibody test result is positive?
COVID-19 blood antibody tests look for proteins in your body that your immune system has produced to fight an infection from SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19. If you receive a negative test result, you have most likely not been infected by COVID-19. However, it is possible to receive a false-positive test result for COVID-19. Make sure to keep the following considerations in mind when interpreting a negative antibody test result.
The COVID-19 antibody test identifies y-shaped proteins that target invading molecules when someone is infected with coronavirus, effectively neutralizing them. So when these antibodies are present in our system, they indicate that, at some point, we likely were infected with the virus. They indicate that our body’s immune system was able to fight off the infection.
