Typical COVID-19 testing can take several days to complete, which might cause anxiety and postpone approval for employment. Fortunately, quick COVID-19 tests are available that provide immediate findings. The health professionals at TIB Diagnostics explain everything about rapid testing in this blog.
Table of Contents
What does fast testing entail?
We provide three types of tests at TIB Diagnostics: COVID-19 fast antigen testing, COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction testing, and COVID-19 antibody testing. Rapid antigen testing does not look for the virus itself but a protein produced by the body in response to the infection. Rapid antigen testing offers results in minutes, often as little as 15-30 minutes.
We also provide COVID-19 PCR testing — which detects the virus itself — and COVID-19 antibody testing — which determines whether you’ve ever had the virus — although these tests take longer to complete.
How is quick testing conducted?
When you receive a quick antigen test, your practitioner will collect mucus via a nasopharyngeal or nasal swab. You may be requested to blow your nose to provide a more representative sample for managing. The swab is inserted into your nostrils and held there for a few seconds to gather the best model possible.
After removing the swab, your physician collects the sample in a collection tube or test card and follows the manufacturer’s instructions for the test. Visual interpretation of the results is possible, as is a performance using an instrument analyzer.
Rapid testing: How reliable is it?
Rapid test results are often highly accurate. False positives are possible but quite improbable. On the other side, false negatives are more likely. That is not to claim that all negative results are incorrect; nonetheless, negative consequences may require confirmation using a regular PCR test. This is especially true if you exhibit COVID-19-related symptoms but receive a negative quick test result.
To be sure you are not infected with COVID-19, it is advised that you acquire two negative test results, at least one of which comes from a conventional PCR test. At this point, your insurance should pay the entire cost of testing, and if you do not have insurance, there will be no cost to you.
What type of tests is performed at TIB Diagnostics?
Appointments for testing at TIB Diagnostics are necessary. At this time, walk-ins are not permitted. Rapid examinations are conducted on a first-come, first-served basis. Upon arriving, you will remain in your vehicle used to complete your exam.
All self-tests approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are verified exclusively using nose samples. However, recent media coverage of Omicron’s tendency to cause sore throats, as well as a small study finding that test samples taken from the throat, may detect the virus more quickly than samples taken from the nose, has prompted an increase in an online discussion about whether people should swab their throat instead of their nose when performing a rapid self-test. In the United Kingdom, some testing kits recommend users to swab their throat first, followed by their nose, to obtain the most sensitive reading.
Here is what we now know about the various methods for swabbing for COVID-19 fast tests and their effectiveness.
What we currently understand about nasal swabs
In the United States, the official position is that nasal swabbing is practical for quick diagnostics. The FDA approved the tests based on research demonstrating that nasal swab samples successfully detect SARS-CoV-2 infection, and producers of at-home rapid antigen tests emphasize that their kits are designed and most accurate for testing with nasal swabs. According to Abbott, which manufactures the popular BinaxNOW kits, the nasal swab test is 95.6 percent sensitive for detecting viruses in patients within seven days of developing symptoms when they are most infectious. Siemens, which just got FDA approval for its over-the-counter fast test, declined to comment on the throat vs. nose swab controversy. BD, another manufacturer of test kits, refused to comment except to state that its test “is not permitted for use with a throat swab or saliva sample.”
Why do people care about throat swabs?
That could be because our understanding of how Omicron, in particular, travels through the human body when it infects a person is changing, as is our knowledge of where it prefers to settle in and establish its virus-copying hub. SARS-CoV-2, a respiratory virus, infects humans through the nose and mouth by virus-containing droplets that can travel through the air and potentially spread between people via particular surfaces. While past strains of the virus concentrated their efforts on the lungs, burrowing into tissues, multiplying, and potentially causing significant and life-threatening respiratory problems, investigations indicate that Omicron favors the nose and throat. (In fact, a sore throat is one of Omicron’s defining symptoms.) Additionally, some early studies indicate that the virus may begin in the throat and spread to the nasal passages, suggesting that swabbing the throat may be more effective than swabbing the nose in someone infected earlier.
Conclusion
It is debatable whether throat swabs should be used in favor of nasal swabs in at-home tests, particularly in light of Omicron’s dominance. If throat swabs can detect Omicron earlier, an infecting person can isolate and contain the virus one day sooner. Nonetheless, some experts, including throat specialists, concur with the FDA’s assessment of the potential dangers, noting that people can injure themselves if not swab properly. In contrast, others believe the risk is insignificant enough to deter people from trying it.