Covid-19: With only 2% false negative results, antigen tests found reliable in Guwahati, says Himanta Biswa Sarma

GUWAHATI: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that only 2% of all the negative results from rapid antigen test for Covid -19 in Guwahati so far have been found to be false negative after the repeat tests by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR laboratory technique.
ICMR has allowed antigen-based assays as point-of-care tests for early detection of SARS-CoV-2 but has underlined that while a positive test by this method should be considered as a true positive, all symptomatic individuals testing negative through the rapid antigen test should be confirmed with a real-time PCR repeat test.
“The antigen tests have become reliable and this a good indication. People can rely on antigen tests as only 2% results have shown false negative,” Sarma said.
Assam put into play its ‘test-track-treat’ strategy for early detection and containment of the novel coronavirus with rapid antigen tests from July 4 in Guwahati through targeted surveillance, voluntary and house-house tests.
Sarma said on Saturday that till Friday 6,257 antigen tests have been completed and of them 1304 samples have tested positive.
“For the remaining 4953 samples which showed negative results, we carried out the repeat tests by RT-PCR and found that only 2% of the samples have tested positive,” Sarma added.