Written question WQ82700
- Asked by
- Paul DaviesConservative
- To be answered by
- Minister for Health and Social Services
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 12 days
Question
What consideration has the Welsh Government given to primary school age children receiving lateral flow tests instead of PCR tests when they experience COVID-19 symptoms?
Answer
Answered by Minister for Health and Social Services
Rapid lateral flow antigen testing and standard lab-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests play a different, but crucial, role in the fight against COVID-19. Lateral flow tests provide an easy and practical way to test asymptomatic individuals at scale and this is critical in the context of 1 in 3 people not showing symptoms.
Lateral flow tests are useful for finding out if a person is infectious now, and able to transmit the virus to others. The level of sensitivity of the test is high enough to detect the vast majority of these positive cases. However, lateral flow testing is less likely to return a positive result outside the most infectious window.
PCR tests are useful for confirming a suspected case of COVID-19, where the person is showing symptoms. The higher sensitivity of PCR means the test can identify genetic material from COVID-19 later in the infection when the viral load is lower.