Rapid Diagnostic Tests for COVID-19 should not be conducted for persons with no symptoms and are not to be used to clear a person from isolation - Dr Fong

Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong has clearly stated that the Rapid Diagnostic tests for COVID-19 used by some should not be conducted for persons with no symptoms (unless they are conducted on the person at regular intervals, for example, daily) and are not to be used to clear a person from isolation.

Doctor Fong says these tests are used to diagnose COVID-19 in a specific environment, and have the advantage of being able to produce a result very quickly (usually within 30 minutes or less), and can be done outside of traditional laboratory setups.

However he says they work best when the limitations of the test are clearly understood by the user.

Doctor Fong says the Ministry of Health has been telling everyone that lives in Suva-Nausori that if you have symptoms of COVID-19 you should assume you have COVID-19 and self isolate for 14 days, keep watch for severe COVID-19 symptoms and immediately seek emergency medical care if they are present.

However, if you are over the age of 50 or have an illness that increases your risk of developing severe COVID-19, you must go to the screening clinics to get tested and put on the appropriate care pathway where you will be monitored by the health teams.

If you test positive on a Rapid diagnostic Test, you can assume that you have COVID-19 and self isolate for 14 days.

However, if you have symptoms and test negative on a rapid diagnostic test you should still assume you have COVID-19 and self isolate for 14 days.

He says they know that these rapid tests have a higher risk of producing a false negative result than the gold standard molecular testing, which is used by the Ministry to confirm all negative rapid tests conducted at the screening clinics.