DAVENPORT, Iowa — The demand for COVID-19 testing continues to reach new highs as the Biden administration prepares to send free at-home tests to families nationwide.
Begging the question: How effective is at-home testing?
"They're not as sensitive as PCR, which is a disadvantage and an advantage," said Scott County Medical Director, Dr. Louis Katz. "They don't pick up people that were infected a month ago, with a positive antigen test. By the same token, they don't pick up people who were infected three days ago with an antigen test."
The accuracy of a negative test cannot be compared to the accuracy of a positive test.
"You get a positive, particularly at a time like now when there's so much virus in the community and it is very, very reliable. It's a negative test that is less reliable, because it tests requires more than a virus to be there. They actually correlate kind of nicely with your ability to transmit the virus," Dr. Katz said.
Rock Island County's Chief Operating Officer, Janet Hill, argues that at-home test kits may not pick up all variants the same.
"The CDC has said that the home base test may not be as reliable with the Omicron variant," Hill said. "However, they are still great tools, especially early in an infection period. So if someone is feeling not well and has a test on hand, that's ideal."
If you take an at-home test and it comes back negative, Dr. Katz advises to take another test 24 or 48 hours later.