“When an individual turns positive is related to the specific variant, because they have different incubation periods, and how much exposure someone has had,” Denny explains. As for when to take an at-home Covid test, there is no perfect answer. It’s extremely important to read and follow the directions that come in your at-home Covid test so that you get an accurate result. “One of the biggest variables to all testing is to have a good quality swab process,” says Denny. However, if you have a positive result on either a rapid antigen or molecular test, you should trust that result, because false positives are very, very rare, says Denny. It’s worth noting that Covid self-tests performed at home are not as reliable as those performed in a laboratory setting. However, that accuracy and speed come with a price tag, and the cheaper antigen tests are still an incredibly useful tool for detecting contagious Covid infection. Molecular tests tend to be more sensitive, so they can detect Covid infection earlier than antigen tests can - from a few hours up to a few days faster. Rapid antigen tests detect Covid when you're carrying a lot of the virus. There are two types of Covid-19 diagnostic tests that are FDA-approved for home testing: Rapid antigen tests, which most of the at-home tests are, and molecular tests commonly referred to as PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests. Antigen versus PCR: Different types of Covid tests available for at-home testing You can look up your Covid test’s updated expiration date here. The FDA has extended the expiration date for many brands’ tests. “ can be countered by repeat testing over a few days,” he explains, “Repeated negatives increase the certainty of a true negative.” What if the test expired? The best way to ensure that a negative result is correct is to keep testing, Denny says. “Yes, but as with all testing platforms they have advantages/disadvantages,” says Thomas Denny, a Professor in Medicine at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute at Duke University School of Medicine.įalse negatives (you have Covid, but it’s not showing up on the test) are far more common than false positives (you don’t have Covid but the test indicates that you do). It’s fair to wonder whether or not at-home Covid tests are reliable. In order to accurately read your test, it’s helpful to have pictures of positive Covid tests to use as a point of reference because the result is sometimes not glaringly obvious. They are convenient to have on hand if you’ve recently been exposed to someone with Covid, have symptoms that you suspect are Covid, or are going to visit someone elderly or vulnerable. But now we have access to at-home Covid tests, sometimes even free ones from the government or your insurance provider, which is incredibly useful especially now that Covid cases across the country have been on the rise since the end of summer. Back at the start of the pandemic, tests were unreliable and nearly impossible to get.

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