Guest Post: Royal College of Pathologists on the accuracy of Lateral Flow Antigen Tests for COVID-19

15 Dec 2020

Our College supports the following public statement issued this week by teh Royal College of Pathologists on the use of Lateral Flow Antigen Tests as part of the work to detect COVID-19.

RCPath recognises the potential role of Lateral Flow Antigen Tests for COVID-19 (LFTAg)[1] when used in a controlled and targeted way as part of an overall testing strategy. However, the public is reminded that the currently-used versions of these tests are not of sufficient sensitivity or accuracy to rule out the possibility that a negative result may not be correct. Whilst a negative LFTAg result reduces the chance that the person tested is infected, it does not eliminate it; therefore, that person could still potentially infect others.

Individuals with negative LFTAg results should still observe social distancing and respiratory hygiene precautions (such as face masks covering the nose and mouth) whilst around others.

Positive results by LFTAg should be confirmed by testing in a laboratory (using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing (RT-PCR)) as a matter of urgency. In the meantime, individuals with a positive LFTAg result should self-isolate pending the confirmatory test result.

The original post by RCPath can be found here.