COVID-19 testing explained

UC Health's Dr. Jennifer Forrester breaks down the two most common COVID-19 test.

NEW THIS MORNING... THERE'SBEEN A LOT OF CONFUSIONSURROUNDING COVID TESTING ASOF LATE.

SO I SPOKE WITHONE OF UC HEALTH'S INFECTIOUSDISEASE DOCTORS, DR. JENNIFERFORRESTER.

THIS MORNING SHEGIVES US SOME CLARIFICATION ONTHE TWO MAIN TYPES OF TESTSAND HOW YOU CAN HAVE MORECONFIDENCE IN THE RESULTS OFTHE TESTING YOU MAY GET.(DR) There's antigen tests.There's antibody tests,there's PCR tests.

Thepolymerase chain reaction testor PCR test is looking forviral nucleicacids.

So the DNA or RNA ofthe virus, depending on whichone you're looking at,(JULIE)this is the mostaccurate test.(DR)These arethe most accurate tests.Right?

I will say that it ishighly dependent on the samplebeing done well, we havetrained our nurses and medicalassistants to do a reallyaggressive swab.

So if itdoesn't make you cry, thenit's it might not be the bestswab(JULIE) Fantastic(DR)right.

It's not pleasant.Anyone who has had it willtell you that and it relies onhow muchvirus if you do haveCOVID you have at that exactmoment in time.

If you arekind of starting to feel sickand you get the test, and it'snegative, but then two dayslater, you feel really sick.You could still have COVID andantigen tests.

Looks for aparticular part of a virus inthis case, they just tend tohave some false positive andfalse negatives, that can bereally frustrating.

Like forthe, for the governor, forinstance, to people to getmaybe a false result.

Andthat's why his was, forinstance, was backed up with aPCR test a little bit morecostly, they can take longerto get the result for that,which is why they a lot ofpeople do the antigen testfirst.(JULIE) And the antigentest for the lay person is therapid test.

Is that what it is?(DR) Yes, exactly.

Scientistsare out there trying to makethose tests better and betterand better.

And so I do thinkthat eventually we're going toget a very good one of thosetests, but right now they areladen with false positive andfalse negative rates andshould always be backed upwith a PCR test just likeGovernor dewine hadDR. FORRESTER SAYS THE BESTAPPROACH TO DETERMININGWHETHER SOMEONE HAS COVID...ISTO LOOK AT THE PATIENT'S WHOLESTORY.

WHAT ARE THEIRSYMPTOMS, WERE THEYEXPOSED...AND HOW, AND THENWHAT WAS THE TEST RESULT.