New research from UMC Utrecht shows that rapid corona tests also work well to detect people with corona but without complaints. It is the first time that research in the Netherlands has shown this. The researchers from Utrecht tried the quick test for weeks on football players from thirteen professional clubs.
The test was conducted on 824 soccer players, referees and staff and compared to the results of the PCR test, which is the gold standard for testing for corona. The footballers were tested on average once a week. The KNVB is enthusiastic about the outcome and thinks that the rapid tests can now be used more often.
Curb outbreaks
“Our research shows that the rapid test works very well in people who have just become infected but have no complaints”, says medical microbiologist Marije Hofstra of the UMCU. According to her, this quick test can now also be used as a screening method for people without symptoms.
“People can already be contagious before they have symptoms and some people don’t get any symptoms at all. By screening you can pick out and isolate infectious people. This way you can limit outbreaks and detect new infections quickly.”
The UMCU research was done with the quick test of manufacturer Abbott. “The other rapid tests probably also work well, but that still needs to be investigated”, says Hofstra.
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Until now, the professional clubs had to have all players tested by the KNVB before a match with a pcr test, which takes more time than the quick test. The football association is happy with the results of the investigation and thinks that the quick tests can now be used more widely by clubs for testing.
“Think of the day of a match or when people come back from a training camp”, says KNVB doctor Edwin Goedhart. “You can now test everyone to be sure, that’s the big advantage. And you have immediate results. This way you can isolate people faster if necessary.”
He thinks that the quick tests could even be used for the public at the football matches. “Then of course we would start with smaller numbers, it is still a bit too early for full stadiums.”
’80 percent had no complaints’
The Alkmaar football club AZ, which in October still had to contend with thirteen infected players, is also satisfied with the results of the investigation. “With the use of quick tests you can save a lot of time as a club and switch quickly if players or staff members turn out to be positive”, says Joost van der Hoek, AZ club doctor.
“In this way you prevent an infected person from infecting others, especially if they have no symptoms yet. And with us, 80 percent of infected people had no complaints with the positive test. This way we were able to remove these people from the group in time. . “
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