JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Instead of waiting in long lines or until your appointment to get the COVID test. What about buying an at-home do-it-yourself COVID test?
An at-home COVID test is also known as an antigen test and you can find them at just about any pharmacy near you.
But the question is do they work?
Dr. Mohammed Reza, infectious disease physician says there was a study performed in March that looked at 64 antigen tests to evaluate their efficacy.
“If you had symptoms versus not having symptoms made a difference. So if you had symptoms the test correlated and gave you the correct positive result in about 72 percent of the time. Versus if you had no symptoms the test was about 58 percent accurate," said Dr. Reza.
To put that in perspective If you are symptomatic then you can most likely test positive, but if you're asymptomatic then your test will likely say that you’re not COVID positive which means you’ll need to take a PCR test to be sure.
“If you have had a high-risk exposure or you're symptomatic you don’t want to do these tests right away. You do want to wait for those three to five days," said Dr. Reza.
Dr. Reza says the reason for that is because your results may not be accurate.
“Because you haven’t produced enough viral particles, so there's a high rate of false-positive even though you have the infection," said Dr. Reza.
Dr. Reza says at home COVID tests are very convenient and helpful for those who are showing symptoms.