The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has said antigen tests for coronavirus will begin soon in Bangladesh with an aim to speed up the testing process to contain a possible second wave of coronavirus infection.
The results of antigen tests would be available within half an hour, reports bdnews24.com.
Director General of DGHS ABM Khurshid Alam on Wednesday said that his directorate will collect 200,000 kits through the Central Medical Stores Depot initially, reports bdnews24.com.
“The kits will reach within a day or two. Besides these, the UNFPA is supposed to give us 1 million kits. I hope we’ll be able to begin the tests within a day or two," he said.
The districts that have no RT-PCR lab and the large hospitals will get the kits for patients who urgently need the tests.
“They still need a week to get the results. It appeared that the patients get infected while waiting for the results at the hospitals,” Khurshid said.
The government is also considering allowing private hospitals to conduct antigen tests in exchange for fixed fees, the director general said.
The amount should not exceed the money being charged now for RT-PCR tests, he said.
Until now, only the RT-PCR tests have been conducted in authorised laboratories since the first coronavirus cases were detected in the country in March.
But the delay in getting the results in this process has hampered efforts to treat patients and contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The number of COVID-19 cases has continued to rise in the country, crossing 382,000 on Wednesday with nearly 5,600 deaths.
The antigen-based rapid tests will speed up the testing process, as the results are available within half an hour. Swab samples from nose or throat are needed in both processes.
They fear common winter diseases like cold, cough, pneumonia and cold diarrhoea will complicate the situation in the upcoming winter.
The government cleared the antigen tests on September 17 in line with the proposal of DGHS and the World Health Organization's interim guidance to address the need for antigen tests in Bangladesh.
