The Basque Government proposes to start using the UPV/EHU test
- The spokesman for the Basque Government for health data, Miguel Sánchez Fernández, stated that he met with the UPV/EHU "to see how we can advance in the possibility of adding this possibility to the diagnostic tests we do today". He has also explained that the strategic decision of the Basque Government is to "intensify diagnostic tests": to test all residents and household workers and to maintain this strategy "in the long term" to "monitor the situation more closely".
On 15 April, the Director of Health Planning, Management and Evaluation of the Basque Government, Miguel Sánchez Fernández, answered the journalists’ questions (in video, in Spanish, from the 7th minute):
Following the accreditation granted by the Spanish Government to the UPV/EHU for PCR testing, does Osakidetza intend to use the test developed by the UPV? And how many tests of this kind are produced in the CAPV every day?
"We have a meeting today to see how we can do to add the UPV test to what we do now."
Yes, it is very satisfying news that the UPV/EHU has been accredited to perform these tests. We are working with the UPV/EHU, with which we have been in contact for weeks. They are within the contingency plans of government laboratories and we take this material into account. I would like to thank you for the cooperation we have had from the outset with the UPV/EHU, as well as for the transfer of material, which is essential to us. Today we have a meeting with the UPV/EHU to see how we can advance in the incorporation of this possibility to the diagnostic tests we perform today.
On the use of the tests: how many tests have been carried out so far in nursing homes, workers and residents? How many quick tests have been used so far? What is the criterion, who is tested and who is not?
Rapid tests are being used in two contexts: on the one hand, in emergency services, as a clinical file compatible with coronavirus, patients who have symptoms developed for a few days are tested. And on the other hand, in the residences, doing tests for both the workers and the residents. So far we have used 4,762 quick tests, of which 3,484 tests have been used in nursing homes.
"The objective is to test all residents and workers of the residences"
We have put in place a strategy of intensification of tests and our objective is to make a diagnostic test for all residents and workers of nursing homes, whether with rapid test or PCR test. We will continue the strategy of intensifying diagnostic tests in the long term to monitor the situation more closely.
Osakidetza has gone to the PCR tests, given the low reliability of the rapid tests. If false negatives occur, have you thought of returning to the rapid tests, as Cantabria (Spain) has done?
"We used the two types of tests: if the rapid test is negative and you have symptoms of disease, you have a PCR test."
These are tests of different use and characteristics. They're complementary tools for us. PCR allows us to detect the genetic material of the virus. This is what we have used so far and what is most sensitive. What rapid tests provide is rapid, but it is true that for them to have a lot of sensitivity, it is necessary that the symptoms have a development of days.
With the protocol we have established, we use the two types of tests in addition: if the rapid test is positive, the patient is called. But if patients with symptoms compatible with the disease are negative in the rapid test, we complete the diagnosis with the PCR test to this patient. The reliability of the data with full guarantee.
