Table 2.

Possible interpretations of SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic test results in patients with COVID-19-like symptoms

	Actions required
Molecular test (eg, PCR) result is positive
True-positive test result	Manage patient and initiate contact tracing and isolation of patient
Indeterminate test result, because not all gene targets are positive	Repeat the test or use a different assay to confirm whether a variant of concern is involved
False-positive test result, caused by laboratory contamination, or incorrect interpretation	If infection is considered to be unlikely, check the proficiency of the testing personnel and the quality management of the laboratory
Molecular test (eg, PCR) result is negative
True-negative test result	No action needed
False-negative test result, caused by a past viremic period	If clinical suspicion is high, use an antibody test to check for previous exposure to SARS-CoV-2
False-negative test result, caused by low viral load, specimen not being collected properly, or test not being done correctly	If clinical suspicion is high, check collection technique, quality of test, and retest
False-negative test result, caused by the test not detecting a virus variant owing to gene target mutations in the target region	If clinical suspicion is high and the virus variant is widespread, use a test that targets multiple genes
Antigen rapid diagnostic test result is positive
True-positive test result	Manage patient and initiate contact tracing and isolation of patient
False-positive result, caused by test result being read incorrectly or low pretest probability (disease prevalence)	If infection is considered to be unlikely, confirm test results with a molecular test or a repeat antigen rapid diagnostic test
Antigen rapid diagnostic test result is negative
True-negative test result	No action needed
False-negative test result, caused by low sensitivity, specimen not being collected properly, or test not being done correctly	Check for quality of specimen collection and rectify; check the sensitivity, or quality, or both, of the test; if there is a high suspicion of infection, retest using another antigenic rapid diagnostic test of higher specificity or a molecular test