First trial with rapid test street started: corona result within 15 minutes

There are several types of rapid tests on the market. They use the antigen rapid test for the research at UMC Utrecht. According to Schuurman, the test, which looks like a kind of pregnancy test, looks at pieces of protein that are typical of the protein coat of the coronavirus. The result is there within 15 to 20 minutes.

According to the researchers, the trial should show for which people the rapid test can be useful. Schuurman: “We know from these antigen tests that they are less sensitive. But now we want to know in which part of the infected people we can detect the coronavirus, and in which part it cannot.”

Schuurman is positive about employability: “At the moment we have many people in the Netherlands with an acute infection. This usually means that they carry a lot of virus particles. With them we can probably use the rapid test to show whether they virus. “

Logistical operation

Earlier this week, the GGD that 10,000 people have to wait every day to be tested, and that sometimes means waiting longer than 48 hours for the result. The demand for corona tests is high, so the need for a good rapid test is growing.

Nevertheless, Schuurman warns that performing rapid tests also involves a whole logistical operation. “We have to use this test per patient, while we can examine the PCR test with almost a hundred at a time. So we need a completely different organization for those rapid tests,” says the microbiologist. The advantage is that less training is required to perform the test than the current PCR test.

The UMC Utrecht trial with the rapid tests will take approximately three weeks. It must then become clear whether the rapid tests are suitable for larger-scale use.

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