DUBLIN: Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan has issued a strong warning to people who use antigen tests bought in supermarkets. The CMO’s safety directive comes after supermarkets, including Lidl, announced that they would sell five antigen test kits for €24.99 nationwide.
Supermarkets are free to sell what they sell and I’ve no comment to make on that, Dr. Holohan said. But he advised people to be wise and to avoid buying and using it.
Antigen testing plays a role in response to the pandemic, but it should only be used under “strictly controlled circumstances”, he said. He says it is not something that to be sell or purchase alongside “sausages and charcoal”.
Inappropriate use is a real threat to pandemic response
Dr. Holohan said he is “very concerned” about such acts of disobeying public health advice. “We’re concerned that somebody could go into a supermarket and buy, for example, you know, a pound of sausages and charcoal for a barbeque and think, great, they don’t have to take to restrictions. That represents a real risk to our pandemic response,” he said.
These antigen tests are only about 50% accurate, so half the cases may go undiagnosed. “These tests, if they’re not used properly if they’re not used in very strictly controlled circumstances, have little role to play,” he said.
“The risk that we see if that it falsely reassures people because they are negative tests when an individual might in fact have the disease, we might have a real risk of transmission occurring,” he said.
He said that if someone tested negative for COVID-19 due to the inappropriate use of antigen testing and then participated in some crowd events, it might result in a “superspreader” incident. “We’re strongly advising people don’t buy these and use them,” CMO said.
Lidl’s advice
Lidl Ireland said that test kits sold in stores should be used as advised by the public health authorities. The supermarket said it has been offering weekly antigen testing to its employees since April.
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