Pharmacies Report Record Demand for Rapid Tests – Medications

A record number of rapid tests were sold in pharmacies in just one day. However, pharmacists attribute it not to beating the rules, but to the fact that people want to get tested before reuniting with their loved ones for the holidays.

“2-3 hours ago they brought me antigen tests, now I only have 7-8. Today I deal more with tests than with drugs,” Pharmacist Maya Popova told Nova TV.

He also says that he sometimes agrees to help with the test by taking samples. For today there is already a positive one, according to the doctors, the tests that we buy in pharmacies make sense, but only if they are done after the incubation period.

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“They are accurate, especially the antigen test is good and we must trust it, because there are several reasons why people cannot go to health centers,” said virologist Prof. Radka Argirova.

“Rapid tests are getting more reliable as we do one that is more than 96 percent reliable,” said Mihaela Dragomanova, who works in a laboratory in Sofia.

From COVID areas, where they are traditionally engaged in testing, they predict a sharp jump in the number of new cases, after antigens enter the statistics. “I assume that the number of positive samples recorded will increase by 10 to 20 percent, since so far most of our patients have been screened with rapid antigen tests,” said Dr. Vasil Vassilev, 12th DCC manager.

Today alone they have isolated 10 positive samples with rapid tests.

The Municipality of Sofia stated that since the establishment of the COVID zones in the DCCs, there have been 2,456 positive samples from there, with just under 8,500 tests performed. And yesterday the positive samples were 26, which is 19 percent of all those analyzed in the offices. However, after equating rapid tests with PCR, they expect an exit of people who, according to them, will be redirected to pharmacies. The reason: a test performed at home will not be reported in the information system.