"The data very convincingly show" that if you take another test or two, you can be pretty sure if you have COVID or not, says Soni, who was the lead author on that paper.
That study showed that if you take a home test on the day you get a COVID infection, there's a good chance it's going to come back negative – meaning you could be infectious but a home test won't yet show it. The FDA made its recommendations based on a yearlong study it did in collaboration with the NIH and University of Massachusetts School of Medicine that was released preprint on medRxiv on August 6. "But it's not that they don't work, it's just that we need a better understanding of what an effective testing regimen should be." Apurv Soni, professor at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine. "There is a recognition that are less sensitive than PCR tests," says Dr. The problem is that those home tests aren't especially sensitive at the beginning of a COVID infection. We get it, repeat testing isn't the most convenient thing. so why am I being asked to redo my home tests if they're negative? Infectious disease experts agree that the only way to be sure you don't have COVID after a negative home test, is to test again – either with another home test or a more sensitive PCR. Only if all those tests are negative should you consider yourself to be COVID-free.Īnd the FDA isn't the only one to think repeat testing is the way to go. If you don't have symptoms, you should take three tests, each 48 hours apart. Here's what the FDA advised in a "safety communication" released on August 11: If you have symptoms, you should take another test 48 hours later. The FDA, however, now says that one negative test isn't enough. The CDC states: "If your results are negative, you can end your isolation." And if you think you are sick and that it might be COVID-19, "isolate" until you get test results. If that test is negative, the CDC thinks you're good to go. The CDC says that if you were exposed to COVID, "instead of quarantining" you should wear a "high-quality mask for 10 days and get tested on day 5.
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