What is involved in a COVID-19 test?
Have you ever heard the notion that the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 can be confusing?
Let us take for example having a runny nose. We all know that allergic rhinitis (a reaction to a certain allergen – like pollen, or the perfume of your seatmate) can cause colorless fluid to flow excessively. On top of that, coronavirus can also present like the flu. With that, the people have been wanting to get tested to verify whether their manifestations are due to COVID-19 or not.
Different COVID-19 Tests
Real-Time – Polymerase Chain Reaction
The most familiar type of test to identify if you have the infection is the RT-PCR test. This is what they call "swabbing." This type of testing can be done even if you are not in a hospital, and, for example, ordered from a molecular diagnostic company. Swabbing can even be availed via a drive-thru service in states like New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Texas, wherein there has been over 1 million confirmed cases, the highest record here in the United States.
The process included in this type of testing would be:
- Identify manifestations. This includes individuals who are experiencing the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 like fever, coughing, difficulty breathing, and headache.
- Make an appointment. This will help avoid long wait times and secure immediate processing of your procedure.
- Prepare to follow the instructions carefully. Bring the necessary documents, such as doctor's order if necessary, appointment scheduling, proof of insurance, and identification cards. Make sure that you read all the signage for directions.
- Follow the sequence of steps in different tents. The first tent is set up for verification purposes. The next one is for swabbing.
Swabbing is a procedure that uses highly specialized nasopharyngeal swabs made of synthetic fiber. You will be asked to position your head properly, tilting backward, so that they can reach down the nose to your upper throat. Most of those who have tried this claim that this procedure is painful.
The specimen will then be packed in a sterile container and forwarded to a medical laboratory, which could be in another tent or in another location. The swab will be examined by the RT-PCR machine, analyzed through a fluorescent probe, and yield results.
Antibody Testing
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to Cellex to release antibody testing kits.
This involves testing of blood samples instead of swabbing to identify the presence of coronavirus infection in a person. This can use plasma, blood serum, or the whole blood. Compared to the RT-PCR, this test does not rely on the RNA of the person. If you are familiar with pregnancy tests, you can imagine how this is being done, as it also involves lines. A difference being that these lines indicate the presence of immunoglobulins M or G or both. These are proteins in the immune system which serve as an antibody. It links to SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
Which is Better?
Just like everything else, these tests have their pros and cons. Both of them have yielded good chances of identifying the virus (CI: 88.06-97.26% and 92.26-97.78% at 95% in positive and negative translations respectively).
They can both give false positive or false negative results depending on the timing of the testing, the handling of the specimen, and the interpretation of the results. A second or even third confirmatory test can sometimes be necessary.
Nonetheless, getting any of the tests will help us get ahead in combating this pandemic one way or another.
