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Demand For ART Test Kit Surges As Much As 5X; People Urged Not To Panic-Buy

2021-09-21 , 9:24 am

Toilet paper, rice, eggs, soya sauce, toilet paper, instant noodles, pasta sauce, toilet paper again, and now antigen rapid test (ART) kits.

Panic buying, much like doomscrolling and sitting on your sofa pretending to be on a plane headed to a foreign land, has become something of a hobby during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The phrase “urged not to panic-buy” has been used so many times by news outlets that it has lost all meaning.

But believe it or not, people are once again being urged not to panic buy. Only this time, it involves something that goes in your nose, not your butt.

Demand For ART Test Kit Surges As Much As 5X

Demand for ART test kits has risen by five times, Guardian and Watsons told The Straits Times.

Other pharmacies and retailers said their stocks have sold out, including at least six retailers in Toa Payoh Central, VivoCity, and Bukit Panjang.

It’s no coincidence that demand has started to surge just as the number of COVID-19 cases is skyrocketing.

Infections surpassed the 1,000-mark on two consecutive days in the past week, which is the highest in over a year.

Testing yourself is certainly a good practice, as it’ll enable you to isolate yourself before potentially spreading the virus to other people if you’re infected.

But…

People Urged Not To Panic Buy

According to local distributors, there’s no need to panic buy, as there’s sufficient stock for everyone.

Singapore’s director of medical services Kenneth Mak said the country has “a lot” of ART kits, surmising that it could be an issue with supply, distribution, and allocation.

Six Free ART Kits For Each Household

These ART kits are also being distributed to households across the country by the authorities.

From 28 Aug, six ART kits have been distributed to each household via mail. The mass distribution exercise will end on 27 Sep.

These test kits were also distributed to pre-school and primary school students before they returned to school after the school holidays.

PCR vs ART

In case you don’t know, an ART test is faster and less intrusive than a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, making it easy for residents to test themselves if needed.

Its sensitivity and specificity are lower than that of a PCR’s, but it has still accurately detected many infections.

This is why individuals who report symptoms of acute respiratory infection at a clinic will undergo both an ART and PCR test; the ART result will come back first, and if it’s positive, the individual will be isolated.

If you test positive on an ART at home or get an invalid result twice, you will need to follow up with a confirmatory PCR test at a Swab and Send Home (SASH) clinic.