If you find yourself in a situation like this, Lam says context is key for determining what to do next. Some people may find they have symptoms consistent with a COVID-19 infection, but they are still testing negative on rapid tests.
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"That serial testing does end up mitigating the drawbacks of at least the accuracy of these types of tests compared to PCR tests." Have some symptoms but test is negative? Context is key "Because these things are more available than PCR testing, each person, if they're able to get hold of them, can test themselves serially," Lam said, adding that people should test multiple days after the onset of symptoms. The key to using them effectively against BA.2 is to test early and frequently. Nevertheless, rapid antigen tests have the advantage of being widely available and delivering a result within minutes, he said. "So the test might not even have time to pick it up before it jumps from one person to another person." "One aspect about omicron is biologically, it likely is more infective than the other previous variants," Lam said. Wilbur Lam, a physician and biomedical engineer who works with the federal government in assessing COVID-19 diagnostic tests. However, given the higher infectivity of BA.2, there is a chance that the virus might infect others before a positive result is seen on a rapid test, according to Dr. Health What to do if you test positive for COVID at this point in the pandemic "But they do work to pick up an infection, and they should be used frequently." "There's usually a day or two delay between when you might test positive on a PCR versus when you might test positive on one of these at-home rapid antigen tests," Gounder said. Celine Gounder, a senior fellow and editor-at-large for public health at Kaiser Health News. That said, rapid tests might take longer to yield a positive result, according to Dr. Rapid antigen tests work against BA.2, but there are some caveatsĪlthough we've long known that rapid tests have a lower degree of accuracy compared to the standard PCR test, there is no indication they are any less effective at detecting BA.2 than previous variants we've seen. Here is what two health experts have to say. While these rapid tests are useful in detecting the spread of COVID-19, the high infectivity of BA.2 and concerns around self-reporting have given rise to a number of questions. At the same time, rapid at-home antigen tests have become the first choice diagnostic tool for many people who think they might be infected.
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Rapid tests are effective in detecting BA.2, but the high infectivity of the subvariant means it could jump from person to person before a positive result is detected.ĬOVID-19 cases have been slowly ticking up in the U.S., with the omicron BA.2 subvariant now the dominant strain in the country.