Forecourt operator Circle K is to start selling Covid-19 antigen tests in its stores from Friday.
The antigen test product has been manufactured in Germany and is being supplied through Irish pharmaceutical company MyBio, which is a supplier of many of the world’s leading bioscience reagents and rapid tests to the Irish market.
The tests will be sold in all stores apart from Circle K Express. Tests are priced at €8 for an individual test. Circle K customers will be able to purchase two tests for €14 and three tests for €20.
Circle K said the test is easy to administer and provides results within 15 minutes. It is designed for the rapid qualitative determination of SARS-CoV-2 virus antigen.
The group said the antigen test is EU certified and has a 97.83 per cent accuracy rate in detecting proteins of the virus. It has shown to be effective in detection of symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers.
However, it is not intended as the sole basis to diagnose or exclude a COVID-19 case.
Gordon Lawlor, managing director, Circle K Ireland, said: "As society continues to reopen and with strong progress on the vaccine rollout front, we feel there is a demand for access to antigen testing products to help further manage the risk associated with this virus
“We see the use of antigen tests as a complementary additional safety measure alongside the existing public health advice and Government guidance.
“It is really important that customers continue to abide by these measures and exercise good judgement when it comes to the usage of antigen tests.”
