Service Description

Antigen tests are immunoassays that detect the presence of a specific viral antigen, which indicates current viral infection. Antigen tests are currently authorized to be performed on the nasopharyngeal, nasal swab, or saliva specimens placed directly into the assay’s extraction buffer or reagent. The currently authorized antigen tests include point-of-care, laboratory-based, and self-tests. Antigen tests produce results quickly (within approximately 15–30 minutes), and most can be used at the point of care. Antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 are generally less sensitive than real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and other nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs), which detect and amplify the presence of viral nucleic acid.