Health Department adds antigen tests to country’s official Coivd-19 stats
The country`s Covid-19 surveillance data is premised on capturing laboratory confirmed case data of both the PCR and rapid antigen tests.
The Department of Health has announced that rapid antigen tests will now be included in the Covid-19 statistics, with effect from Tuesday.
Initially, all Covid-19 positive cases were diagnosed through the ‘gold standard’ of a laboratory-confirmed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
However, since the approval of rapid antigen tests by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) last year, the use of these tests by healthcare professionals has increased.
“These rapid antigen tests have been offered across the country in both the private and public sector and through the mobile laboratories of the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) across the country,” said the department’s spokesperson, Foster Mohale.
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According to the department, antigen tests provide easier access to testing and provide results within 15 to 20 minutes.
In addition to this, multiple manufacturers are now producing and using them for testing, in line with SAHPRA’s approval.
Through ongoing efforts to ensure the best available surveillance data for decision-making, the department said some Covid-19 antigen tests from various sources have not been incorporated into the laboratory information system.
“The identification of the additional data is not unusual as data cleaning, quality checks and endeavours for completeness are ongoing processes.”
Mohale added that the department remains committed to providing the best available data to both decision-makers and South Africans.
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