As experts call for more rapid tests, how accurate are they and when should you use them?
CBC
With the fourth wave raging in many parts of Canada, some groups have been trying to implement another tool in the fight against COVID-19: rapid testing.
Canada has yet to make rapid antigen tests widely and cheaply available.
Dr. Fatima Kakkar, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and doctor at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine in Montreal said rapid testing could play a bigger role in controlling the pandemic in Canada.
Kakkar, also an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Montreal, said polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are considered the "gold standard" in testing for COVID-19, look at viral RNA.
"It's able to pick up even traces of the virus," Kakkar told Brian Goldman, host of White Coat, Black Art and The Dose.
Although PCR tests can be done in as quickly as an hour in urgent situations, labs often batch samples every eight or 12 hours, causing delays of up to 48 hours before results are available.
Rapid antigen tests, on the other hand, look for pieces of protein made by the virus. Like the PCR test, a rapid antigen test involves a nasal swab, but it doesn't need to go as deep as the PCR test swab.
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