Coronavirus: why rapid-result test kits might not be the quick fix some governments are hoping for
- Many scientists have been cautious about the rapid tests’ reliability, with data from Spain indicating accuracy rates that are as low as 30 per cent
- Britain hopes the tests will allow people who have had Covid-19 and recovered to return to work, safe in the knowledge that they are immune
Some political leaders are hailing a potential breakthrough in the fight against Covid-19: simple pinprick blood tests or nasal swabs that can determine within minutes if someone has, or previously had, the virus.
The tests could reveal the true extent of the outbreak and help separate the healthy from the sick. But some scientists have challenged their accuracy.
Hopes are hanging on two types of quick tests: antigen tests that use a nose or throat swab to look for the virus, and antibody tests that look in the blood for evidence someone had the virus and recovered. The tests are in short supply, and some of them are unreliable.
“The market has gone completely mad,” Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Thursday, lamenting the lack of face masks, personal protection equipment and rapid tests, “because everybody wants these products, and they want the good ones.”
The Spanish government on Thursday sent 9,000 rapid antigen tests that were deemed unreliable back to a Chinese manufacturer that, according to the Chinese government, had no license to sell them.