Background: Evidence on performance of Rapid Antigen Detection Tests to recognize SARS-CoV-2 symptomatic patients in our context is limited. This study was aimed to evaluate Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test Device (Abbott Diagnostics, Jena, Germany) in identifying SARS-CoV-2 infection in comparison with RT-PCR test. Methods: This cross-sectional validation study was carried out at Margalla Hospital, Taxila from October, 2020 to March, 2021. Three hundred and eighty-two participants of both gender and all ages, symptomatic for 3–4 days were included in this study. For each participant, two nasopharyngeal swabs were collected by trained lab technicians according to SOPs, one for Rapid Antigen Test and other for RT-PCR.Covid-19 antibodies were checked 4-6 weeks after symptoms among 77 randomly selected participants to further evaluate the performance of Rapid Antigen Test. Data was analyzed using SPSS-26. Results: The mean age of the participants was 43.1 years (SD= 15.9). More than half of participants were males (n=213%=55.8) and 169 (44.2%) were females. Sensitivity of Rapid Antigen Test was calculated to be 94.3%, whereas the specificity was 39.7%. Out of 34 RT-PCR negatives that were initially detected positive on Rapid Antigen Test, 33 demonstrated presence of COVID-19 antibodies. Conclusion: Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test was found to have 93.4% overall sensitivity and relatively low overall specificity (37.9%). Rapid antigen testing using Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test Device can be effectively used to scale up mass testing to interrupt transmissibility of COVID-19 infection by generating quick result.

Objective: To determine association of ABO and Rh blood groups with COVID-19 RT-PCR positive status. Study Design: Case control study. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Pathology, Margalla Hospital Taxila, from Apr 2020 to Dec 2020. Methodology: The sample comprised of 436 cases and 500 controls. Out of 3936 RT-PCR done during the study duration, 436 RT-PCR positives were enrolled in study as cases. 500 age and gender matched controls were selected from same population. Study variables (age, gender, blood groups, RT-PCR result) were obtained from Hospital data (HIMS). Data was analyzed using SPSS version 25. Mean and SD was calculated for age. Frequencies were calculated for categorical variables. p-value calculated applying chi square test. Odds ratios calculated to determine association. Results: The mean age of cases was 37.3 ± 16.3. Statistically significant association was observed between age, gender and COVID-19 RT-PCR positive status. B+ blood group was most frequent both among cases (35.4%) and controls (36.2%), followed by O+ and A+. However, no significant association was observed between blood groups and COVID-19 RTPCR positivity. Odds ratios calculated for blood group O and non - O (OR=0.95), A antigen (OR=0.97) and Rh factor (OR 0.93) among cases and controls showed week negative association. Whereas a weak positive association of B antigen + and B antigen - with PCR positivity (1.07) was observed between cases and controls. Conclusion: Susceptibility to acquire COVID-19 infection is not associated with ABO and Rh blood groups according to this study.