ABSTRACT
COVID-19 pandemic is becoming one of the most dramatic health, social and economic global challenges in recent history. Testing is one of the main components of the public health response to contain the virus spreading. There is an urgent need to expand testing capacity and antigen rapid tests (Ag RDT) represent good candidates for point-of-care and mass surveillance testing to rapidly identify people with SARS-CoV-2 infection, counterbalancing lower sensitivity as compared to the gold standard molecular tests with timeliness of results and possibility of recurred testing. Here, we report preliminary data of the testing algorithm implemented at the points-of-entry (airports and port) in Lazio Region (Central Italy) on travelers arriving between 17th of August to 15th of October, 2020, using the STANDARD F COVID-19 Antigen Fluorescence ImmunoAssay. Our findings show that the probability of molecular confirmation of Ag RDT positive results is directly dependent from the semi-quantitative results of this Ag RDT, and that the molecularly confirmed samples actually harbor infectious virus. These results support the public health strategies based on early screening campaigns in settings where molecular testing is not feasible or easily accessible, using rapid and simple point of care tests, able to rapidly identify those subjects who are at highest risk of spreading SARS-CoV-2 infection.
