Bangladesh permits antigen test of COVID-19 at govt hospitals

Bangladesh government has permitted antigen test for rapid testing of COVID-19 cases at the government hospitals.

The health ministry in a notification, uploaded in its website on Sunday, said the antigen-based testing has been permitted in all government hospitals, district hospitals, government PCR labs and all health institutes as per the proposal of the Directorate General of Health Services and the interim guideline of the World Health Organization.

Health ministry deputy secretary Bilkis Begum signed the September 17 dated notification.

On July 5, the DGHS wrote to the health ministry to allow antigen-based COVID-19 testing.

The National Technical Advisory Committee on COVID-19 also recommended it several times.

According to the DGHS proposal, the antigen tests would be carried out on patients with symptoms.

If anyone is found positive, the patient would be isolated.

But if anyone is found negative in the antigen tests, they would be tested again by RT-PCR or GeneXpert machine for confirmation. New Age