One of the most excellent aids that medical practitioners received during the pandemic are COVID-19 testing. Though there are more than one standard test to confirm if a person has contracted the coronavirus disease, there are two types of most used in various settings. Aside from standard practices like thermal scanning and contact tracing, medical professionals in different industries encourage people to get tested for COVID-19 to prove one’s health is in good condition.
Companies in different parts of the world took the opportunity to keep their employees safe by letting them work remotely. Still, it is also their concern that some of the essential people in the company can report to work; that is why they require these people to undergo the PCR test for safety purposes.
PCR Test
As mentioned earlier, it is the PCR test or the polymerase chain reaction test that most companies encourage their employees to get for clearance and proof that they are in good condition to report back to work. It is the test that even health experts advise for airline travelers’ screening. Fit to fly COVID tests are required for people who have scheduled flights—the test usually takes 2-3 days of turnaround time, but the result can come out in less than 24 hours—because they need to secure a copy of their fit to fly certificate to proceed with the travel.
Also, because of its high accuracy, a repeat test for whether a symptomatic or asymptomatic patient is unlikely is a gold standard in detecting the virus’s genetic makeup.
Antigen Test
For companies with many employees, the “rapid test,” as they refer it to, is one of the best options. It has a turnaround time that is so quick, and results can only come out within 20-30 minutes. It is also less expensive.
However, there are some cases when the antigen test result may result negative, but the person who underwent the testing seems to be exhibiting symptoms. That is when doctors’ advice people who got a “false positive” result were tested using the PCR test.
See this infographic to see how both PCR and Antigen tests work in detecting the coronavirus.
