The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark recognises the use of antigen testing for business travellers

From Monday 7 December 2020, business travellers have the full support of the Danish authorities for being tested using an antigen test when they return home from business travel.

This is one of the initiatives that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark is now taking to improve the conditions for business travellers. So far, only PCR testing has been recognised by public authorities as a testing method.

The advantage of an antigen test is that the answer as to whether the test is positive is available after 15 minutes. Which specifically means that, on his return, a business traveller can be tested and then go to the office instead of having to be quarantined for one or more days while waiting for the result of a PCR test.

At SOS International, the announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark pleases Karin Tranberg, Vice President:

- We perceive this to be recognition that antigen testing plays an important role in the battle against Covid-19. We have chosen to offer antigen testing because we see a distinct need to keep society and businesses going and thus avoid losing revenue and jobs.

Authorities still recommend that business travellers are tested again four days after returning home and that this second test is a PCR test.

Antigen testing helps to break chains of infection
SOS International has three test clinics that test using antigen tests. And, every day, they succeed in breaking chains of infection. The percentage of positives (the proportion of infected individuals) is in line with those tested in the public sector and, last week alone, the percentage of positives at the clinic in Copenhagen was 3.5 %.

SOS International uses an antigen test from the French manufacturer Biosynex. Biosynex states that the test has a sensitivity (proportion of positive tests, correctly identified as such) of 96% and a specificity (proportion of negative tests, correctly identified as such) of 100%. This makes the antigen test from Biosynex one of the best performing on the market.

A large Swiss study has tested antigen tests with inferior manufacturer data than that used by SOS International. This study shows that antigen testing generally performs at a sensitivity of 89% measured against PCR testing.

The conclusion of the study can be found here: https://bit.ly/33TthUM