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Following the green light from the Scientific Technical Committee, here is the circular from the Ministry of Health on the use of rapid tests in schools.
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It will also be possible to use rapid antigen tests currently in use in ports and airports in schools.. The Ministry of Health specifies that “The use of these rapid antigen tests is capable of guaranteeing an accelerated diagnosis of Covid-19 cases, allowing a timely differential diagnosis in suspected cases between influenza syndrome and SARS-CoV2 disease.”
On the eve of the arrival of seasonal flu and “Faced with a probable expansion of the need to prevent, through the execution of tests, the increase of infections”, the ministry believes that the use of rapid antigen tests can speed up the diagnosis of suspected Covid-19 cases, even in schools.
In fact, it is “Completely legitimate to assume – explains the ministry – that the frequency of febrile episodes in the school population in the autumn and winter period is particularly high, and that it is necessary to resort often to the practice of hyssop to quickly exclude the possibility that it is Covid-19, as well as to identify quickly isolate the cases and trace the contacts, facilitating the decision to apply or not quarantine measures in a short time and with a considerable saving of resources, avoiding excessive overload of the reference laboratories ”.
Therefore, when faced with a suspicious case and faced with the risk of a possible infection of school personnel or students, the rapid antigen test can also be used.
The circular explains that “The sample collection methods for rapid antigen tests are completely similar to those for molecular tests (nasopharyngeal swab), the response times are very short (about 15 minutes), but the sensitivity and specificity of these tests appear to be lower than those of the molecular test. ”
Is “It implies the possibility of false negative results in the presence of low viral load as well as the need to confirm positive results with molecular swab.” However, “other validations performed on” fresh “(freshly taken) samples have shown, instead, a high sensitivity and specificity”.
Considering the possibility of false positive results (for this reason the positive results of the antigen test are confirmed with the molecular test) and false negative results (the sensitivity of the test is certainly not equal to 100% and, in addition, we must consider the “window period” between the time of exposure to risk and the appearance of positivity), However, thanks to the use of these rapid tests, a significant number of infected people were intercepted, probably with high viral loads, which would not have been identified otherwise ”.
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