Madison (WKW) – As the coronavirus spreads in Wisconsin, so does testing.
One test can get you results in less than 15 minutes, and it will only become more comprehensive.
Wisconsin is expanding access to rapid antigen testing in many UW system schools.
Rapid testing eliminates the multi-day waiting period you experience a typical PCR test, but there are concerns about its accuracy.
On Thursday, UW-Medis began giving community antigen testing at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
On Monday, staff said it was the busiest day ever.
Megan Kinney was one of the people who was tested, and she was amazed at how quickly her results were obtained.
“You have the option to email them to you, or sit down and wait 15 minutes to get the result and actually the email came and it gave me my results,” he said.
The speed at which the sample is not sent to the lab.
The chemical reaction takes place on a card like how a pregnancy test works.
Doctor Jeff Pothoff with UW Health said the test is very effective in certain circumstances.
“If you get an antigen test and it’s positive and you’re more likely to be positive, very high,” he said.
If you have symptoms and you get a negative result, he says he knows it’s positive and you get a PCR. Wait until the test is done.
Antigen testing is also not very specific for asymptomatic people.
“If you’re asymptomatic and you get positive, it’ll stop me. That means you have to make sure you’re positive until the test of certainty comes.”
The differences come from how the tests work.
The “gold standard” PCR test takes a sample, detects any traces of the virus, and determines whether someone has the virus in their system.
Antigen requires a large amount of virus already present for a chemical reaction to occur.
Because this is not a foolproof test for accurate results, especially if you are asymmetrical, the follow-up test is crucial.
However, Dr. Pothoff said it helps reduce stress on resources on PCR tests.
“[The PCR test] They need a lot of reagents, they need a lot of lab wearers, plastics, pipettes, they need a lot of big expensive machines that you just can’t get into any CVS or weird grains, “he said. Antigen tests are really cheap, you can set it anywhere. “
Dr. Pothof says the best way to get around the downside of testing and use it as a screening tool is to test people every day. That’s why, the NFL. Testing is used to make sure players are clear for the game.
“Obviously you won’t be able to test the population of half a million people in Madison, the general area, every day for Covid 19.” “There’s no way to do that.”
UW Health conducts studies to see if they can use antigen testing to see if it is safe for hospital staff and able to work on a daily basis.
UW Madison has 80,000 antigen tests by the end of the year.
You must make an appointment ahead of time for the test.
