Covid Detect
Understanding how COVID-19 tests work at different stages of infection.
Brought to you by the National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADxSM) initiative.
What was the COVID Detect study about?
- We aimed to better understand:
- How well different tests work to detect COVID-19 in both early and late stages of infection.
- How COVID-19 symptoms and the potential for transmission can differ between people and over time.
- Study design:
- Participants received a kit to collect their own samples every day for two weeks.
- A trained observer guided collection of the samples remotely by video or FaceTime.
- Sample collectors picked up the samples from participants.
What did we learn from the COVID Detect study?
- COVID-19 screening programs can boost the accuracy of rapid antigen tests by using a serial testing schedule
- In this study, screening for COVID-19 every three days with a rapid antigen test detected infected individuals as well as a lab-based PCR test.
- PCR tests are more effective than antigen tests at identifying COVID-19 infections in the very early stages of infection.
- We collected and stored samples that may be used for future research about COVID-19 and related viruses.
- Read more about these findings in the following publication:
- Smith RL, Gibson, LL, Martinez PP, et al. Longitudinal assessment of diagnostic test performance over the course of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 224, Issue 6, 15 September 2021, Pages 976–982, https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/224/6/976/6311835.
