As the country strengthens testing efforts, the availability of testing technologies provides reliable testing for active infections, aids in contact tracing and provides insights about how people react to COVID-19 infection and vaccination by measuring the body’s immune response. The ongoing fight against COVID-19 in the country calls for an efficient diagnostic tool that can enable decentralized testing.
The Panbio COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test Device is a lateral flow assay for rapid, qualitative detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The test is a reliable, affordable and scalable option for large-scale testing in a variety of community settings.
Vince Dizon, Deputy Chief Implementer of the National Action Plan Against COVID-19, said: “The Panbio antigen test, which has received WHO (World Health Organisation) Emergency Use Listing, will greatly help us quickly detect positive cases within minutes and allow for faster tracing and isolation as we battle this wave of infections.”
Individuals have the option of a nasal swab for collection of specimens, making the process less invasive and more convenient. The test — which is authorized for use by healthcare professionals — requires no instrumentation and provides results as early as 15 minutes.
Negative results do not preclude COVID-19 infection and cannot be used as the sole basis for treatment or other management decisions.
Over the coming months, Abbott expects to provide millions of COVID-19 tests to the Philippines. In 2020, Abbott shipped 400 million COVID-19 tests worldwide.
Results from a clinical study by Abbott of 508 samples demonstrated that Panbio COVID-19 Ag with a nasal swab has a 98.1% sensitivity and 99.8% specificity on people who were suspected of exposure to COVID-19 or had symptoms in the last seven days.
As Philippines joins many other countries around the world in the authorization and the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, it is important for healthcare professionals and researchers to assess how individuals and communities are responding to vaccination.
Abbott’s scientists designed the quantitative IgG II test to detect the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2, which plays an important part in how the virus enters the cells. As the body develops an immune response, antibodies develop and bind to the spike portion of the virus in order to block the protein and ultimately prevent infection.
