On March 11, the National Health Commission said that after research, the Comprehensive Group of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council in Response to the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic decided to add antigen detection as a supplement to nucleic acid testing, and organized the formulation of the "New Coronavirus Antigen Detection Application Plan (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan").
The "Plan" points out that if community residents have self-testing needs, they can purchase antigen detection reagents for self-testing through retail pharmacies, online sales platforms and other channels.
According to media reports, since the Approval of five self-testing types of new crown antigen detection reagents on the website of the State Food and Drug Administration, manufacturers are accelerating the supply of major pharmacies and Internet pharmacies.
After the introduction of the "Plan", many Internet platforms such as Meituan, Ali, JD.com and Dingdang Medicine announced that they would be listed or will soon be on the shelves of the new crown antigen test kit.
Sanyan Finance also purchased a new crown antigen test kit through the Meituan takeaway APP on March 13. However, perhaps it was the reason for the first listing at that time, and I did not receive the goods until today.
In order to let readers further understand the use of the new crown antigen detection kit, the author specially conducted an experience test at the first time of receiving the goods.
The COVID-19 Antigen Kit test experience self-test took less than 5 minutes and there was no discomfort
First of all, the new crown antigen detection kit purchased by Sanyan Finance contains a reagent card, sample processing tube, disposable sampler and instruction manual.
The instructions need to be read carefully when using, and there are detailed steps for use in the kit, as well as precautions.
The author follows the instructions, in addition to waiting for the results of the fifteen minutes, the full test takes less than 5 minutes, and there is no discomfort.
When the results come out, there are three possible outcomes for the reagent card: positive, negative, and invalid.
If red or purple bands appear in both the C and T regions of the kit, it means that the novel coronavirus antigen has been detected in the sample, which is positive;
If a red or purple band appears in the C area of the kit, it means that the sample has not tested for a novel coronavirus antigen, that is, negative;
If there are no red or purple bands in the C region in the kit, whether or not there are bands in the T region, the results are invalid and need to be retested.
If the test result is positive, then the user should report it in time and isolate and seek medical treatment in accordance with the regulations; according to the "Plan", once the antigen result is positive, it needs to be reported immediately to the community (village and town), and the community (village) contacts the emergency center in accordance with the guidelines for the transfer of personnel related to the new crown pneumonia epidemic to transfer the positive person to the medical institution that has set up a fever clinic for nucleic acid testing. After the positive person uses the sampling swab, sampling tube, test card, etc., into a sealed bag and transported to the medical institution for medical waste disposal.
The National Health Commission pointed out that nucleic acid testing is still the basis for confirming the diagnosis of new coronavirus infection, and antigen detection can be used as a supplementary means for screening specific populations, which is conducive to improving the ability of "early detection"; in addition, positive antigen results are not used as the basis for confirming the diagnosis of new coronavirus infection.
Finally, it should be noted that after the new crown antigen detection kit is used up, it is necessary to package the used disposable sampler, sample treatment tube, etc. and dispose of it according to medical waste.
After the overall experience, the author feels that in addition to doing a "nasal swab" for myself, there will be a little psychological fear, and there is no discomfort. The whole process is not difficult to operate, the only thing to pay attention to is that it is packaged after use, and it should be disposed of according to the classification of garbage when discarded.
Major platforms and pharmacies have been sold
At present, users can already buy various brands of new crown antigen test kits on platforms such as Meituan, Ele.me, Tmall, JD.com, and Dingdong Medicine, as well as offline pharmacies, and can purchase them according to their own needs.
Sanyan Finance noted that users can place orders through the platform and ship within three to four days; they can also choose to buy new crown antigen test kits by nearby pharmacies and deliver them to their doors within half an hour.