This is an interim guidance published by the World Health Organization on how to select rapid antigen tests and when and where to use them.

Rapid antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 are less expensive and faster. They should be used for primary case detection in symptomatic individuals and asymptomatic individuals who are at high risk of COVID-19, such as health workers. 

The tests should also be used for contact tracing, conducting outbreak investigations, and to monitor trends of disease incidence in communities. 

There are some variations in test performance, but these tests are very much suitable in track, trace, and isolate programmes aimed at interrupting community transmission.