Hanoi conducted quick tests for about 70.000 people returning from Danang in July. However, according to many health experts, this method is not much value as “this quick test is not valuable for detecting people infected with Covid-19”.
SARS-CoV-2 is a type of Coronavirus, inherited by RNA. This virus is considered an antigen. A person infected with Covid-19 takes 7-15 days to produce antibodies to fight this virus.
People infected with Covid-19 are usually incubated for about 5-14 days (some cases take longer). Therefore, it is necessary to test to detect if they have Covid-19 to implement the quarantine and limit the spread in the community.
To detect Covid-19, the Realtime-RT-PCE technique must be used. This is the technique that follows the principle of gene amplification. We have been using this technique for a long time.
And the quick test - which is currently used in some places - is to detect the antibodies of the virus. Using this test is not suitable to detect Covid-19.
It is not correct to use an antibody detection test to look for the antigen. If the test’s result is positive, it is considered as a “miss” because it is not sure if the person still has antigens. If the person has previously had the virus, the consequences of virus transmission have already occurred.
If the test is indicated too early, the result is always negative, as the antibodies always appear later. If the result is negative, it is unknown if that person has the virus or not.
People who get the quick test result negative will think they are not infected. They can be subjective and in case they have Covid-19, it is possible that they can spread to the community.
This method is to monitor the results of the treatment in people infected with Covid-19 after the appearance of antibodies or not.
It is important to adjust medications and change the regimen accordingly
Furthermore, the quick test method can be used to investigate epidemiology in the community to see if people in that area were previously infected with Covid-19. This is necessary to know the risk of infection in the area and then develop a pandemic prevention strategy.
Therefore, people must be honest and promptly report; if there is any doubt, they must go to medical facilities to comply with recommendations on wearing masks and washing hands regularly. Everyone should implement social distancing, do not gather a large number of people, and all together fight against the pandemic effectively.
