Thailand doctors question ATK test accuracy, after alarming spike in positive cases

If you’ve ever questioned the accuracy of an antigen testing kit, aka ATK test, then you’re in good company. Thailand’s Rural Doctor Society, or RDS, has pointed out an alarming spike in ATK-detected cases of Covid-19 collected by the CCSA for it’s daily Covid count, raising questions about how accurate the nifty testing kits really are.

In a post on their Facebook page yesterday, the RDS found that the amount of ATK-detected infections in just three provinces was much higher than the total number of ATK positive cases nationwide on Wednesday. The CCSA had published Wednesday’s data on yesterday morning.

The three provinces of Chon Buri, Songkla and Change Rai reported a total of 16,484 cases, with 8,323, 4,839 and 3,322 cases respectively. Yet the corresponding number from the CCSA for the entire country was 16,079, said the group.

In their Facebook post, the group of Thailand doctors and district hospital directors nationwide had this to say about the alarming spike in ATK-detected Covid cases…

“We, the front-line healthcare workers, are working hard as we aim to bring the number of new infections down by containing the spread of the virus as well as we can… We, too, expect to see a lower number of new cases as we are trying harder to contain the spread of the virus, but making up an ideal figure just isn’t the way to go… Reporting the actual number of new infections will instead help raise public awareness about the outbreak situation.”