RAPID ANTIGEN TESTING FOR COVID-19 SHOULD BE AVOIDED AS SCREENING TEST AT LARGE SPORTING EVENTS WITH CLOSE PHYSICAL CONTACT BETWEEN COMPETITORS.

Abstract

Large sporting events during the pandemic are organized as 'COVID-19 free zones', function under quarantine measures, and are regularly testing all participants. Recently, point-of-care tests (POCT) for rapid detection of COVID-19 antigen were presented as a cheaper, faster, and easier-to-perform option than reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing. However, no study confirmed the efficacy of POCT used at a large sporting event that includes close physical contact, such as judo. An observational study was conducted that included 670 participants from 36 countries attending two consecutive judo competitions. In total, 839 RT-PCR tests and 839 POCT tests for COVID-19 were performed. There were 508 participants tested at one time point when entering the venue, while 162 were tested at two time points in order to participate in both competitions. Seven subjects had positive RT-PCR results, while 4 had positive POCT results, meaning the prevalence of COVID-19 at the competitions was 1.04% according to the RT-PCR results. The main finding of this study was that POCT testing proved to be an effective method in detecting true-negative results. However, due to sensitivity that is insufficient to detect all true-positive cases, POCT should always be used in combination with RT-PCR at large sporting events with close physical contact between competitors in order to avoid COVID-19 outbreak.