The Ministry of Health today (01) issued guidelines for the private sector medical institutes for carrying out Rapid Antigen Tests to diagnose Covid-19 positive cases.

As per the guidelines, the private sector medical institutes will also be permitted to perform the Rapid Antigen Tests.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the World Health Organization had been urging nations to conduct more and more tests for Covid-19, however, many nations were struggling to offer adequate testing as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests remained an expensive diagnostic.

WHO recently included Rapid Antigen Testing in its Emergency Use Listing (EUL), authorizing two manufacturers – SD Biosensor, Inc and Abbot Rapid Diagnostics Jena GmbH.

The Rapid Antigen Test is much simpler and faster to perform than the currently-recommended nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT), like PCR.

These tests provide results in 15–30 minutes and enable expansion of testing, particularly in countries that do not have extensive laboratory facilities or trained health workers to implement molecular tests, the WHO said.

Thereby, Sri Lanka also imported several consignments of Rapid Antigen Test kits, approved by the world health body, after obtaining the nod from National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA).

The WHO also donated a consignment of 100,000 Rapid Antigen Test kits to Sri Lanka and the government initially rolled out the new test kits in government hospitals.

However, private sector hospitals have also been authorized to carry out Rapid Antigen Tests, to help the country’s combat against Covid-19.