New COVID-19 antigen testing method offers highly accurate results in under 3 minutes

New variants to the COVID-19 virus have challenged the capacity of existing testing methods to deliver fast and consistently accurate test results, as PCR tests must be sent to labs and can take days to be returned. Furthermore, rapid antigen alternatives struggle to match up to the gold standard. But to effectively slow the rate of infection, spaces like schools and hospitals need ways to accurately identify infected individuals within their first days of infection as they’re walking in the door.

Now, a novel antigen-based COVID-19 detection method developed in a Northwestern University laboratory demonstrated 100% accuracy in a blind test in five or fewer minutes from swab to signal.