SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Testing Intervals: Twice or Thrice a Week?

Antigen testing for SARS-CoV-2 has become an increasingly prominent screening tool in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and can be performed multiple times a week. However, the optimal weekly frequency of antigen testing is unclear; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 1–3 times a w...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Aw, T.-C (Author), Lau, C.S (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2022
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Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
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Summary:Antigen testing for SARS-CoV-2 has become an increasingly prominent screening tool in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and can be performed multiple times a week. However, the optimal weekly frequency of antigen testing is unclear; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 1–3 times a week, while some experts support testing 2–3 times a week. In our own laboratory, all staff (n = 161) underwent twice-and thrice-weekly antigen tests during different periods from August 2021 to the present as part of routine COVID-19 surveillance of healthcare workers. No cases of COVID-19 were detected with either regimen. While more frequent SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing may allow antigen testing to be an important surrogate for RT-PCR testing, performing SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests twice or thrice a week shows no inferiority to each other in screening for COVID-19. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
ISBN:20754418 (ISSN)
DOI:10.3390/diagnostics12051039