From. N332.

? COVID19 tests now available to buy in pharmacies in Spain without prescription 

Before today, if you wanted to buy a self-diagnostic test, it was mandatory to present a prescription at the time of purchase. Now, with the modification of Royal Decree 1662/2000, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, will replace this provision to buy the self-tests without the prescription being necessary.

‼️ The first thing to keep in mind is that, although these tests will be available to everyone in all pharmacies in Spain, these self-diagnostic tests will not have official validity before any body. Therefore, you will not be able to use them as proof that you have had the virus, nor will their results be valid in the case of going on holiday, for example. Overall, they will be for personal monitoring of the virus, nothing else.

Types of tests available:

?? In the case of antigen tests, this type of self-test allows the user “to carry out the tests without the intervention of a healthcare professional", which on the one hand will reduce to a certain extent the pressure in healthcare centres and will allow the rapid identification of positive cases ”, according to the decree. They are intended to be used within seven days of the suspected infection, with the first symptoms.

The test is, broadly speaking, similar to the well-known PCR, and is responsible for detecting at the time the sample is taken, if the person is infected. The protocol of each one will be independent depending on the brand, but they all share the same guideline: a swab of about 3 centimetres that must be inserted to the bottom of a nostril -depending on the brand, sometimes it only works with saliva-, without previous preparation, then stir a couple of times and place it in a small measuring device. In less than 15 minutes, the diagnosis will be ready: if the result is positive, the test (T) and control (C) lines will be marked; if negative, only the control (C). If none appears, the test is faulty.

?? Antibody tests, on the other hand, are carried out to detect if a person has been infected and has developed antibodies or immunity against it.

In addition, it is very useful for monitoring infected people. It can also help to make a first diagnosis of whether the virus is active or not, but in any case the answer will not be as definitive as in the case of antigens.

This antibody self-test, also known as a serological test, works by drawing a small amount of blood from the finger. The results are quite fast and do not take more than five minutes to tell if the person has passed the Covid and developed their immunity, so it is NOT useful to detect if they have the virus at the time of taking the sample.

Prices:

From the General Council of Pharmaceutical Associations they explain that, as it is an over-the-counter health product, the tests do not have an intervened price and it is the manufacturer that establishes at what value each product will be marketed. This means, broadly speaking, that it is impossible to determine a fixed price, but most indicate that the final costs of sale to the public of the antigens will be around 10 euros. A little more for the serological tests.

Thanks for this info from El Español