States are stepping up antigen testing, but why reliability concerns remain

While antigen testing picks up a large number of positive cases quickly, some positive cases could remain undetected due to the antigen tests not being sensitive enough

India has begun to use the technology of antigen testing for Covid-19. This is faster and cheaper, than the “gold standard” of testing, the RT-PCR technology. It also very accurately detects positive cases of Covid-19. But its downside is that it gives a substantial number of ‘false negatives’ where a person’s test can come as negative, when they could actually be positive for the viral disease.

“The problem is we are saying there is a certain percentage of positivity in testing and as positivity in testing goes down, we may feel that we have begun to flatten the