New Delhi Dr Harsh Mahajan, founder and chief radiologist, Mahajan Imaging, said that even after having symptoms of Kovid, there is a possibility of false-negative reports in the rapid antigen home testing kit and people should self-isolate as a precaution.
Talking to ANI, Dr Harsh Mahajan said, “Two types of tests are being done. One is the home tests, which are rapid antigen tests and have very limited sensitivity. These are around 50 per cent sensitive like the gold standard. RTPCR test, so you can get a false negative test on these test kits.”
He said that in many cases, even after showing symptoms of Kovid, false negative reports have been received.
“In these home test kits, there is a possibility of not taking a proper sample from the back of the nose or throat. As a result, a ‘positive’ result may not come up. The probability of a false-negative report in RTPCR tests is only 10 per cent. Since the testing laboratory are done in,” he said.
Dr Harsh Mahajan further said that when a patient is symptomatic, overall the RTPCR test comes back positive if the sample is received properly and transportation is done properly.
“Sometimes the test results come back negative because of the length of the incubation period. The incubation period is different for both the Delta and Omicron variants. During the Delta version, the average average incubation period was about five days. So, we tell People These tests should not be done immediately after exposure because they will come back negative. This occurs between two and 14 days of incubation with an average of five days,” he explained.
“With Omicron, which is the predominant form now, the incubation period is shorter and I would suggest that people get tested on the third day. If you have the disease, you will come back positive. Of course, if symptoms do start, one on the same day.” Because once the symptoms start the RTPCR test report is likely to come back positive,” Dr. Mahajan emphasized.
“The isolation period has also been reduced from 10 days to 7 days in the Omicron version, provided there are no symptoms in the last 3 days. All the sub-types of Omicron can be detected by RT-PCR test,” he said.
He said that there are three sub-types of Omicron – BA1, BA2 and BA3 and the major variant is BA1.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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