The National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) on Wednesday, approved the use of antigen testing for screening of COVID-19 patients in the country.
Federal Minister for Planning and Development – Asad Umar took to social media to announce the NCOC decision to use antigen testing for screening coronavirus patients amid increasing cases in the country.
“NCOC today approved the use of anti gen testing, in addition to the PCR tests being carried out,” he tweeted.
The federal minister highlighted that the use of antigen testing has been approved in order to increase the testing capacity amid rising COVI-19 cases.
The development comes as earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan announced that Pakistan, like many other countries is witnessing a second COVID-19 wave.
Pakistan’s COVID-19 tally stands at 330,200 cases with 6,759 deaths so far. A total of 825 cases along with 14 casualties were reported in the last 24 hours.
A total of 311,814 people have recovered from the novel virus in Pakistan, whereas 4,347,155 COVID-19 tests have been conducted so far.
Antigen Testing
An antigen test reveals if a person is currently infected with a pathogen. Once the infection has gone, the antigen disappears.
Unlike nucleic acid based tests such as PCR, which detect the presence of genetic material, antigen tests detect proteins or glycans.
They can take longer to develop than molecular and antibody tests, as suitable antibodies for use in the assays must first be identified and produced, which can be a complex and time-consuming process. Accuracy can also be a problem, with antigen tests typically having a much lower sensitivity than PCR.
However, antigen testing is relatively cheap than PCR testing.
