LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. — Some coronavirus tests can take up to two weeks to get results, which is more than the 10 days the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends a positive COVID-19 case needs to isolate. 


What You Need To Know

  • Rapid COVID-19 Antigen tests provide results in as little as 15 minutes

  • Rapid test not as accessible in Kentucky, but 12 Urgent Care Centers of Kentucky offer it

  • Rapid test is an antigent test while tests that take several days for results are molecular

  • Molecular test is current gold standard

On the other end, a Rapid COVID-19 Antigen test provides results in as little as 15 minutes, but the test is not as easily accessible in Kentucky because there aren’t many locations that offer it. Centers that do usually have certain requirements to take it, from being a healthcare worker to experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. However, in central Kentucky, 12 Urgent Care Centers of Kentucky offer this rapid test to anyone. 

“I’ve had patients come from Ohio, Indiana, most come from Louisville,” said Christina Wilson, the office manager and medical assistant for the Lawrenceburg location. 

Symptomatic, asymptomatic, employed, unemployed, insured, or uninsured, the test is open to anyone. Wilson said if a person doesn’t have insurance, the test is still no cost for them.

The rapid test that gives results in 15 minutes is an antigen test, while the tests that usually take a few days for results are a molecular test. Right now, the molecular test is the gold standard that’s used right now at drive-thru testing sites and healthcare centers in Kentucky. 

The two tests detect a COVID-19 positive or negative result via two different methods, which is why there’s a difference in how long it takes to get results back and how accurate each test is.

Dr. Steve Heilman, senior vice president and chief innovation officer for Norton Healthcare, explained that an antigen test tests for proteins on the surface of the COVID-19 virus particle while the molecular test looks for genetic material in the virus.

“It is amplified over and over again multiple times through a process called PCR or Polymerase Chain Reaction, which means it requires a minimal amount of viral load to test to see if someone’s positive or negative for the test. Technically, molecular tests have a higher sensitivity than antigen testing,” Heilman said. He also explained that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends antigen testing for patients during the early onset of COVID-19 symptoms. 

“They are good, and they are sensitive. They are cheap, and their turnaround time is rather rapid, but it really is designed for someone who has been symptomatic in the last five days of having COVID," Dr. Heilman told Spectrum News 1.

However, he said the tests are improving regularly and each person is a case-by-case basis regarding which test they should take.

“Asymptomatic patients with a positive test means you are likely positive for COVID, meaning you do have it even though you are asymptomatic. So there is some value in having the test done if you get a positive result,” Heilman said.

Heilman said if an asymptomatic person is given a negative result on an antigen test, then the FDA currently recommends that patient has a molecular test to confirm that they are negative before running the risk of exposing other people.

Wilson said the Lawrenceburg urgent care location started rapid testing in May of this year and currently tests about 70 people a day using the antigen test alone. She said the majority of positive cases at the location are from asymptomatic patients. 

“It’s probably eight out of ten times that asymptomatic patients test positive,” Wilson told Spectrum News 1.

After a patient gets the antigen test at an Urgent Care Centers of Kentucky location, a negative result is texted to their phone within 15-20 minutes. If the result is positive, Wilson said the urgent care center will call the patient, ask a few questions, and then that information is passed onto the local health department that takes up communication with the positive case from there. 

While the molecular test is the current gold standard, both types of tests were rushed to market with the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization, and neither is 100 percent accurate.

“I will tell you the molecular tests are in the high 90’s and the antigen tests are usually in the high 80’s, in terms of their sensitivity and specificity,” Heilman explained. “So false positives are fairly rare on both of them. So if you’re positive on either one of the tests, you likely have COVID. False negatives are more likely to occur in the antigen tests than they are in the molecular tests,” he added.

Heilman said Norton Healthcare is sticking with the molecular test for now.

“The test results we get back, I’m confident in what we tell our patients, that whether or not they are positive or negative. I think if the antigen test is used as a screening tool just because of exposure, there’s a likelihood we could tell somebody that they are negative who may have actually been exposed, have not developed symptoms yet that may go on to develop it and affect people in their family, and we don’t want that to happen,” Heilman told Spectrum News 1.

However, there is a time and a place for the antigen test. 

“Rapid, quick turnaround, cheap. There’s reasons to do it if we are really trying to rule out symptomatic patients who we think might be positive. There’s validity in utilizing that resource," he said.

Gov. Andy Beshear recommended that Kentuckians get routinely tested to ensure they don’t unknowingly have COVID-19. Currently, there are over 259 testing locations across Kentucky.

People can receive a Rapid COVID-19 Antigen test at one of the 12 Urgent Care Centers of Kentucky where appointments are offered seven days a week.