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Tents for carrying out Covid-19 screening tests have sprung up everywhere, in front of pharmacies. But be careful, in this winter period: tests carried out at too low a temperature could indicate false positives.
Why can testing in tents be risky?
Antigen testing is often done in a tent outside the pharmacy. Not only to limit the number of people waiting their turn in the pharmacy but also to avoid potential contamination inside.
This solution seemed appropriate to the situation, but the winter temperatures were not sufficiently taken into account: not for the comfort of the people waiting to take a test, but rather for the reliability of the latter.
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Temperatures between 2 and 30 ° C
Indeed, antigenic tests, when exposed to cold, are no longer reliable and can give false positive results. This is confirmed by Gilles Bonnefond, spokesperson for the Union of Community Pharmacists (USPO) to our colleagues from Le Parisien: “If the tests have been frozen, it completely degrades the silica matrix”. It is therefore impossible to obtain a reliable result.
In addition, for optimal test conditions, the outside temperature must at least be above 7 or 8 ° C, at least. Not really the case at the moment, in the middle of January.
In the same vein, remember not to leave your self-tests in your cars. In the freezing temperatures we’re experiencing, they could freeze and give you fake bad news.