Positive results from the widely-used rapid Covid tests should be trusted, say UCL researchers.
Lateral flow tests are very good at detecting people most likely to spread Covid-19 and positive results should be trusted, say University College London researchers.
But government guidance says people must get a follow-up PCR test after a positive LFT to confirm they have Covid - and they can end their self-isolation when they get a negative result in a PCR test. Prof Michael Mina, from Harvard School of Public Health, also part of the research team, said the LFTs could "catch nearly everyone who is currently a serious risk to public health" when viral loads are at their peak.
There was much criticism of the rapid tests when they were first trialled in Liverpool last year because they were directly compared to PCR tests, which were often described as the gold standard.Lateral flow tests and PCR tests do different things:PCRs detect genetic material of the virus which can be present in the body for several weeks after somebody is actually capable of passing it on
And they acknowledge that errors in the way people take the tests or in the way they are processed in the lab could affect results - and these factors were not taken into account in their study.
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