Coronavirus: despite lower reliability, "antigen tests are useful"

Faster but less reliable, they are still useful.

Available in pharmacies, antigenic tests have a definite advantage over PCR tests: it only takes a few minutes to obtain a result.

But the latter is not necessarily reliable if you do not have any symptoms of the coronavirus, such as cough, fever or body aches.

There is even a risk in two, or even three, that the result will be a false negative. 

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"Better than not getting tested at all"

"Despite this weakness, it is better than not to be tested at all", advances at the microphone of Europe 1 Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of pharmacists.

According to the latter, the antigen test is "useful", especially in the case of an "asymptomatic individual who wants to fly and who will have a negative result from his pharmacy with a certificate that will allow him to go on a trip" .

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For contact cases, only the PCR test is valid

But that's not all, thanks to the speed of the test, it can act as a filter in the event of a visit to an nursing home or simply to the home of a person considered at risk, such as a senior.

This role of "filter" will gain momentum in the coming weeks since antigenic tests will also be available at dentists or physiotherapists and therefore even more accessible. 

However, there remains one restriction to these tests: people with contact cases.

In this situation, only a PCR test carried out in the laboratory is valid.

It will therefore be necessary to be patient.