Groundbreaking: Hungary among the first in the EU to start using new coronavirus test with 99.5% accuracy

Besides detecting the virus itself, there has been a pressing need to be able to detect whether someone has already had it without even knowing about it. This is what the new SARS-CoV-2 IgG Assay test is supposed to do.

The new test is crucial not only for health-related reasons, but it can also help make more effective decisions regarding our strategies against the pandemic, and it can also help the economy.

Hungary is among the first to introduce the new SARS-CoV-2 IgG Assay test in the EU. The St. Imre Teaching Hospital, Budapest is the first institution to use the test to detect whether someone has or already had the SARS-COV-2 infection, 24 reports.

The SARS-CoV-2 IgG Assay test is approved both by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and CE IVD. This test can detect whether someone has already had the SARS-COV-2 infection with 99.5% accuracy. Therefore, it can play a crucial role in determining the exact cases of the virus in Hungary, which is vital for making more effective strategies against the pandemic in the future. 

According to the hospital’s Chief Director and Head Physician, Dr Bedros J. Róbert, the new test is able to predict if someone has already had the virus with 99.5% accuracy. Dr Bedros also claims that most rapid antibody tests have limited capacity to detect the presence of the virus, or in some cases, they cannot detect it at all.

For example, the two types of rapid tests already in use in Hungary have proven to detect only 30% of the positive coronavirus cases. These also cannot tell if someone being tested has already had it.

• Read also: Drive-through coronavirus testing introduced in Budapest

The medical staff at St. Imre Teaching Hospital, Budapest are the first ones to be tested, but hopefully, several other Hungarian institutions will soon use this new type of testing.

Source: www.24.hu