The Panbio COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test: Which Performances are for COVID-19 Diagnosis?

BACKGROUND: Rapid antigen detection assays are promising tools for the diagnosis of COVID-19. We assess the performances of the Panbio COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test. METHODS: The Panbio COVID-19 Ag Rapid test was compared to a reference RT-PCR performed on the same nasopharyngeal swab (NPS). Overall, 81 NPS were tested retrospectively and 330 healthcare workers (HCWs) were tested prospectively. RESULTS: Retrospective analyze. Of the 48 SARS-CoV-2 positive NPS, 19 (39.6%) were found positive with the Panbio COVID-19. There was no cross-reactivity with SARS-CoV-2 negative NPS. The Kappa value was 0.459. Prospective analyze. The prevalence of COVID-19 was 26.1% in symptomatic HCWs. The overall sensitivity and specificity of the Panbio COVID-19 were 47.2% and 100.0% respectively. The sensitivity was 55.2% and 14.3% in those tested within and after 4 days of diseases respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The Panbio COVID-19 Ag Rapid test displays low performance for the identification of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients.

SARS-CoV-2 screening of asymptomatic health care workers: experience of a General hospital.

Health care workers (HCWs) are at major risk to be infected by SARS-CoV-2 and transmit the virus to the patients. Furthermore, travels are a major factor in the diffusion of the virus. We report our experience regarding the screening of asymptomatic HCWs returning from holidays, following the issue of a national guideline on 08/20/2020. The organization of the occupational health department and the clinical laboratory was adapted in order to start the screening on August, 24, 2020. All HCWs tested for SARS-CoV-2 the week before and 4 weeks after the implementation of the screening were included. The mean number of tests was analyzed per working day and working week. Overall, 502 (31.4%) HCWs were tested for SARS-CoV-2 during the study period. The mean number of HCWs tested per working day was 27.1. HCWs accounted for 36.9% (n = 167) and 11.2% (n = 84) of the tests performed in the 1st and the 4th week following the implementation of the guidelines. The number of tests performed each week in HCWs increased by at least 20-fold after the implementation of the guidelines. No asymptomatic HCW was tested positive. Screening of asymptomatic HCWs was poorly effective in the context of low circulation of the virus. We suggest giving priority to infection prevention and control measures and screening of symptomatic subjects and asymptomatic contacts.