Are at-home covid tests accurate? What the results can and can’t tell you.

Are at-home covid tests accurate? What the results can and can’t tell you. While at-home coronavirus tests can be a useful diagnostic tool, the tests aren’t 100 percent accurate and a negative result shouldn’t be thought of as a “free pass.” Allyson Chiu Washington Post

Several at-home coronavirus test kits have received emergency-use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration and can be purchased without a prescription online or from drugstores, giving people access to a much more convenient testing option.

“You have the result in 15 minutes and you don’t need to go anywhere,” said Clare Rock, an infectious-disease physician and associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She added, “People have the autonomy to take some of this into their own hands.”

But experts emphasized the tests are not 100 percent accurate and a negative result shouldn’t be thought of as a “free pass.” Here’s what else you need to know about home tests and what the results can — and can’t — tell you.  ...