Rapid antigen test isolation unclear for asymptomatic cases

On Christmas morning, Gavin Stone and his family each took a rapid antigen test before spending the day with relatives.

"My wife is a pharmacist and we thought this was the right thing to do before we spent the day with all our family," Mr Stone said.

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After completing the test, only Mr Stone recorded a positive result, despite having spent the last few days in close contact with his wife and children.

Mr Stone completed a PCR test on Christmas morning and proceeded to isolate from his family, until it returned a negative result the following day.

Without symptoms, and no close or casual contacts, Mr Stone was weary of the RAT test result after hearing about false readings.

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"A contact at the COVID testing lab said they have recorded false positives from rapid tests already," he said.

"I had a look online, but I couldn't find any protocols for how a family should isolate when you get a positive RAT result, but haven't had any contact or symptoms."

With the government advising asymptomatic people to utilise RAT tests, Mr Stone said he would have liked more direction from the Department of Health after isolating from his family on Christmas Day.

"Lots of people are getting these tests but there's no guidance online, when you call public health or at the testing centre," he said.

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"I' was waiting for a PCR result, but there's not much info about how much isolating I should do, or the rest of the household when the original source was an antigen test.

"I imagine there will be a few people in the same boat in the next couple of days."

A government spokesperson said people could use RAT tests to test for COVID-19, but if a positive result was returned, they needed to isolate and organise a PCR test to confirm the result.

They said the government was investigating the role of rapid antigen tests in managing COVID in the state.

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