Rapid COVID19 Tests

COVID19 tests are valuable tools - but they aren’t perfect. Knowing when and how to use them is key.

A potential use for at-home tests that you can purchase over the counter:

Take them as close to your holiday gathering event as possible. This could be an important layer of protection to include in your festivities - especially if your gathering includes a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

Testing does not replace other strategies like vaccination, masking, avoiding crowds, and hand washing. All of these layers of protection work when used together.

An important note - rapid antigen tests (the type of test that these at home kids are) are not extremely accurate in the early course of disease when you have less virus replicating. This is an important drawback, because this is also when an individual is often experiencing mild or no symptoms.

Useful information on how to use a COVID19 antigen test can be found here at this link and at this link.