Article Notes
Article pearls, summaries and comments.
Early 2021 update of the 2020 Cochrane Review: Rapid, point-of-care antigen and molecular-based tests for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Better data is now available on correlation between PCR cycle threshold and likely infectivity.
Early 2020 studies of COVID rapid antigen tests were of low quality and of variable applicability to COVID diagnostic decisions. This situation improved dramatically in 2021 and 2022, and many RATs are now continually validated in existing and emerging variants.
This Cochrane Review was updated in 2021.