Hwang Kao-pin, deputy director of China Medical University Hospital's infection control center, said rapid testing kits can deliver results in about 15 minutes with over 90 percent accuracy.
The rapid testers can accelerate the COVID-19 diagnosis of anybody potentially infected by the virus and help isolate the threat as quickly as possible, Hwang said.
His remark came after Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je and Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung announced that the city will soon set up four rapid COVID-19 test stations in Wanhua District due to the emergence of cluster infections there.
According to Ko, the testing sites will be set up in Heping and Zhongxing branches of the Taipei City Hospital, in the West Garden Hospital, and at the Bopiliao Historic Block.
Since Wanhua is a densely populated area, Hwang said, the rapid test kits' ability to quickly contain a threat is particularly important.
Shih Shin-ru, who heads the Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections at Chang Gung University, echoed Hwang's views, saying Taiwan has come to a point where the rapid tests must be widely adopted as part of its epidemic prevention efforts.
"This basically means that the epidemic situation [in Taiwan] has heightened," she said.
Unlike polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which look for traces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus' genetic material in a patient's mucus, the rapid testers are used to detect the protein of the virus, she said.
Although the rapid test is not quite as accurate as a PCR test, if an individual has been tested positive it means that the person can generally be determined as having caught COVID-19, according to Shih.
When a person is tested positive with a rapid test, it means that a high viral load has been detected in the body and that quarantine measures must be carried out immediately, after which a PCR test can be conducted just to be certain, Shih said.
Liu Hui Chi, vice president of Formosa Biomedical Technology Corp., said there are two types of rapid COVID-19 tests, one that looks for antigens and another that looks for antibodies, and both have already been widely applied in many countries since the pandemic began.
Most importantly, Liu said, by using the rapid testers, the city can close a loophole that could compromise Taiwan's ability to contain the disease, particularly in cases of community transmissions of COVID-19.
