Conclusion
The study findings indicate that the DG Rapid and SD Rapid kits can be considered reliable substitutes for rRT-PCR in detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection, particularly in areas with scarce resources and limited access to PCR testing. The study also indicates that these test kits exhibit a high level of sensitivity in samples with Ct values lower than 29.99, indicating that they would have good performance in patients with a high viral load (Ct values ≤29.99). These findings support the use of rapid antigen tests as an alternative diagnostic tool for COVID-19.
This study recommends a continuous quality assessment program by relevant regulatory and monitoring agencies to not allow a potential positive case to return with a false negative result. Given these findings, we also recommend a further study with a larger fresh sample size to be done on the other existing COVID-19 RDT kits on the Ghanaian market, as rRT-PCR testing is expensive and ubiquitously unavailable.