This study showed that some rapid antibody tests have low sensitivity and therefore would be insufficient for community screenings.

At this time, the gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis is PCR-based system taking several hours to confirm positivity. This is insufficient for public health containment measures. This study examined a rapid antibody test in 39 randomly chosen people at a testing site, who got both tests at the same time. They also ran tests on 10 previously diagnosed individuals.

Of the 49 individuals, 22 were positive by repeated PCR. The rapid antibody test detected only eight of the positives (sensitivity 36%). Of the 27 negative individuals, 24 were correct (specificity 89%).