Miroslav Petrovec, the head of the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, dampened expectations that rapid antigen tests could soon be a key part of the efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, but said efforts were under way to improve their reliability and the tracing of their results.
“We cannot solve the Covid-19 epidemic by means of rapid tests and we cannot replace measures that we have a duty to abide by,” he said. Slovenia has joined the European Commission’s plan to bulk buy rapid tests, which would mean cheaper and more reliable tests. Petrovec said these could be useful as an aid, but PCR tests remained the norm.