Accelerating The Fight Against COVID-19: Antigen Rapid Testing Technologies And The Workplace

Introduction

As part of its efforts at restricting and combating the spread of COVID-19 and its effects on the health and livelihood of Canadians, the Government of Canada is making efforts to increase its testing capabilities by exploring the possibility of rapid testing mechanisms such as antigen tests. Antigen tests detect certain proteins in the virus, and results are produced within 5-20 minutes. This timing is significantly faster than the current polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that takes more than 6 hours to produce results. The first of such rapid antigen tests was approved in October 2020 and the first tests arrived at various federal and provincial Health Authorities, and some airlines, in mid-November. The two tests currently in  circulation are the ID Now and the Panbio rapid tests. Rapid tests may increase the ability of workplaces and public health officials to quickly isolate positive COVID-19 cases and keep the rest of the work population