At-Home Testing | CDC

You and your health care service provider may well look at either an at-dwelling assortment kit or an at-home examination if you have indicators and symptoms of COVID-19 and if you cannot get examined by a healthcare supplier.

At-dwelling collection kits and tests are readily available possibly by prescription or about the counter in a pharmacy or retail store devoid of a prescription. At this time accessible at-home exams search for recent an infection.

Collecting Specimens

Wash your palms, then stick to the recommendations involved with the specimen assortment or take a look at package for gathering your own nasal or saliva specimen.

• For the best final results, acquire and manage the specimens according to the manufacturer’s  instructions. If you really don’t obtain the specimens as directed, your check benefits may be incorrect.

Some assessments have to have a nasal specimen that can be collected using an anterior nasal swab or a nasal mid-turbinate swab. Other exams call for a saliva specimen.

The moment collected, ship the specimen to a screening facility or use the specimen, as described in the manufacturer’s instructions, to complete the at-household take a look at.

Carrying out the Exam

Stick to the manufacturer’s directions just and in the purchase specified. The maker may well also present other means, these as fast reference guides or instructional video clips, to enable you complete the check appropriately.

Recommendations

• Retail outlet all examination factors according to the manufacturer’s directions until eventually all set for use.
• Do not use expired tests or take a look at elements that are ruined or discolored.
• Disinfect the countertop, desk, or other surface area in which you will do the exam.
• Never open up exam products or other test parts right up until the tests process is about to arise.
• Examine and record exam results only within just the sum of time specified in the manufacturer’s recommendations. A result examine before or following the specified timeframe may not be correct.
• Never reuse examination equipment or other parts.

Soon after you have the effects, discard the specimen collection swab and exam kit in the trash, disinfect all surfaces that the specimen might have touched, and clean your palms.

Reporting Final results

Converse your outcomes to your health care service provider, who is accountable for reporting your exam outcomes to the condition wellbeing section. If the at-house check has an app that allows you to report your results to the point out health division, inform your healthcare service provider whether you utilized that app for results reporting.

If Your Test Is Detrimental

A destructive test final result implies that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that leads to COVID-19, was not identified in your specimen. If you took the test while you experienced signs or symptoms and followed all guidance carefully, a adverse consequence typically implies your latest ailment is not COVID-19.

Having said that, it is doable for a check to give a unfavorable final result in some folks who have COVID-19 (that is, a bogus detrimental). You could also check detrimental if the sample was gathered also early in your an infection. In this scenario, you could examination positive afterwards during your sickness. Examine your indications and take a look at success with your healthcare provider to ascertain if you need observe-up testing.

If you have COVID-19 indications, particularly if you have been exposed to someone who has COVID-19, you need to quarantine in accordance to CDC tips.

If Your Take a look at Is Optimistic

Notify your healthcare supplier about your beneficial take a look at outcome and keep in speak to with them throughout your ailment. To keep away from spreading the virus to other folks, stick to CDC suggestions. See CDC’s assistance Isolate if You are Ill, which has info for a man or woman who checks good and has signs and symptoms, and for a individual who doesn’t have signs and symptoms.

If Your Final result Demonstrates Invalid or Error

In some cases the benefits are not distinct or are inconclusive, and the exam is not able to explain to you if your outcomes are constructive or destructive.

If the screen on the at-household examination displays an invalid final result or a check error, the check did not work thoroughly. If this occurs, please refer to the recommendations for use in the deal insert and get in touch with the company for help.

Invalid outcomes can take place for several good reasons. Your specimen could not have been collected the right way or the testing instrument might have malfunctioned. However, this sort of invalid benefits ought to not materialize usually.

Regardless of what your exam results are, you really should generally evaluation the effects with your healthcare supplier. Your healthcare service provider will take into consideration the exam outcome with each other with your symptoms and feasible publicity in deciding how to care for you.