At-Home COVID Tests Are in Short Supply Amid Delta Surge

Ellume, whose COVID-19 home test delivers results digitally, told Bloomberg that it is also scaling-up production. And CVS wrote in an email to AARP that it is continuing to work with its suppliers to meet customer demand.

Testing is still key to helping slow COVID’s spread

With so much of the attention on vaccines these days, coronavirus testing can feel so 2020. But experts say that along with other preventive measures it’s still important when it comes to slowing the spread of disease, particularly when nearly half of the U.S. population remains unvaccinated. And home testing can play “a valuable role” in this strategy, Vermund says.

With cold and flu season on the horizon, “there’s going to be more situations where people are experiencing some symptoms that might be concerning for COVID-19 or influenza,” Binnicker says. “And so being able to quickly and easily perform a test at home is desirable and will become more of interest as we move into the next two, three, four months.”

In addition to cluing you in on whether your sniffles could be cold- or COVID-related, quick at-home tests can also be used as a way to navigate risk in certain situations — even for people who are fully vaccinated — like visiting a friend who is immunocompromised.

The rapid home-based tests, known as antigen tests, are considered less sensitive than PCR tests, and they can miss a positive case if the person infected has low levels of virus in the nose. “But it will catch the most infectious individuals. And they’re the ones who are the most important to catch anyway,” Vermund says.

So testing negative on one of these tests before visiting someone who is immunocompromised, for example, “would at least tell that individual at that point in time [they are] not shedding really high amounts of the virus” and their chances of transmitting the virus to the person they’re visiting is “going to be lower versus if [the test is] positive,” Binnicker says. You’ll want to reschedule your visit if you get a positive result.

And let’s not forget about group events: “There’s an increasing trend” for organizers of large gatherings — weddings, concerts, conferences and reunions — to ask everyone, including vaccinated people, to test themselves ahead of time to “be on the safe side,” Vermund says.

That said, it’s crucial to know that a negative test result, home-based or otherwise, isn’t a “free pass” to abandon other precautionary measures, Binnicker warns. It’s “really just one kind of mitigation step in our toolbox of helping to reduce risk of spreading COVID-19,” he adds.

Taking an at-home test

Before you purchase a home test, make sure it has been authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Check the label on the package, or consult the FDA’s database of antigen tests that have received emergency use authorization.

When it comes to ensuring accurate results, timing is key. If you don’t have symptoms of COVID-19 but think you may have been exposed, wait three to five days after exposure before you swab your nose, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says. If you do have symptoms and those symptoms are a result of a coronavirus infection, you’ll likely have enough virus in your respiratory tract for a rapid home test to pick up on.

Be sure to read the manufacturers’ instructions before setting up the test and swabbing your nose and be sure to follow the instructions in the order that they are listed. If you’re looking for some extra tips, the CDC has pointers on how to collect a sample.

If you test positive using a home test, Binnicker recommends contacting your health care provider and scheduling a confirmatory test. This will ensure your results get reported to health departments tracking the spread of the virus. It’s also important for your doctor to keep an eye on any concerning symptoms that may require additional care or treatment and for you to isolate yourself from others.

Some at-home tests are designed for serial testing, meaning a second test should be done a few days after the first. So if you test negative on the first one and two tests are included in the kit, be sure to follow up in a few days with a second swab for best results. The amount of virus in your respiratory tract may have changed since the last test. A second swab also helps account for any human error that occurred when administering the test the first time around.

If symptoms continue even with a negative test, you should still see a health care provider, Binnicker says. It could be the flu, which can be treated with antiviral medication. Cases of another respiratory virus known as RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) are also on the rise, and infections in older adults and young children can be dangerous.

And remember: A negative test doesn’t mean you can “just take the mask off, go wherever you want without a mask on and interact with unvaccinated people,” Binnicker says. Testing alone is “not a foolproof approach.”