Coronavirus: criticism grows after issues with rapid tests

Rapid tests and their use have come in for a fresh round of criticism, with complaints that some are of poor quality, which raises concerns of profiteering.

“The way in which the rapid tests are being carried out is not the most correct nor the most scientific, they are an important tool but amongst them are tests of low sensitivity and this is shown with false positives and false negatives,” Haris Armeftis, pulmonologist and president of the private doctors’ union, said on Politis radio.

Armeftis said that amongst the tens of thousands of rapid tests undertaken each day among them are evidently tests of lower quality – therefore less accurate – which are cheaper to buy and raises the issue of profiteering.

Special mention was made of the confusion surrounding the auditor general’s flurry of positive and negative tests.

Earlier this month, Auditor-General Odysseas Michaelides tested positive when undertaking a routine rapid test. He swiftly took another rapid test but the result came back inconclusive, while a PCR test then came back negative followed by another negative PCR test.

A similar incident occurred over the weekend at the Andreas Papandreou air base, when 26 out of 75 soldiers were found to be positive after having taken rapid tests.

The results were later walked back when subjected to PCR verification, as only one person was confirmed positive via PCR tests.

Armeftis said that such incidents plainly show the process in which the rapid tests are being carried out is faulty.

“We’ve been saying and keep saying this but no one from the authorities wants to hear this.”

He detailed that according to the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) guidelines, health care staff should be changing gloves in between collecting samples but this does not appear to be happening.

He further questioned as to whether all those who are tasked with carrying out the rapid tests are sufficiently trained to do so.

The health ministry was not immediately available for comment.

“If testing by rapid antigen test is considered, test performance and prevalence in the target population need to be taken into consideration, as there continues to be a considerable risk of false negative and positive results with rapid antigen tests, depending on the prevalence,” according to an ECDC report published in November 2020.

It also said that rapid tests perform best in cases with high viral load, in pre-symptomatic and early symptomatic cases up to five days from symptom onset.