It is a question of time and money, which means that the Danish authorities do not make greater use of PCR testing to test for corona. Although PCR tests are considered far more reliable than lightning tests.
This is stated by the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) in a written answer, after Politiken has been able to report that approximately every other person who has been found infected by a PCR test receives a negative answer when he or she has undergone a lightning test.
Due to the uncertainty, the authorities could, among other things, involve some of the private companies that have the opportunity to perform PCR tests and where the response times are even shorter than in the public sector.
But several things speak for the lightning tests despite their uncertainty. This is stated by Anne-Marie Vangsted, director of Testcenter Danmark under SSI. In a written answer, she mentions, among other things, the response time of the lightning tests of just 15 minutes.
In addition, unlike lightning tests, PCR tests require special equipment and laboratory-trained personnel, while at the same time being more expensive.
– PCR is a diagnostic tool, while antigen testing (lightning test, ed.) Is fine as a screening tool, says Anne-Marie Vangsted in the written answer.
According to Politiken, figures from SSI show that from 1 February to 23 March, there were 117,670 citizens who received both a lightning test and a PCR test within 48 hours.
4069 were positive according to the PCR test. But the lightning test caught only 2159 of them. That equates to 53 percent.
1910 people with coronavirus in the body were thus sent a negative test result. This is equivalent to 47 percent of the lightning tests in the study giving what is called a false negative answer.
Even though the lightning tests do not always detect that a person is infected with corona, the lightning tests have an important function as a supplement to the safe PCR tests, says Anne-Marie Vangsted.
– Antigen test can be considered as a large-mesh sieve that finds a lot of sick people but does not detect those who have minor viruses in the body.
“Antigen testing is an important screening tool in relation to detecting and breaking chains of infection, but antigen testing is not intended for use as a diagnostic method,” she says.
Figures from SSI show that since last year, more than 3.5 million lightning tests have been performed in Denmark.
In comparison, just under 22.5 million PCR tests have been performed, which, however, have also been available for longer than lightning tests.
Denmark currently has a capacity to take a total of around 400,000 tests a day at public expense. They are more or less evenly distributed on PCR and lightning tests. Currently, around 300,000 are typically tested per day.
Source: The Nordic Page