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University of Nebraska Medical Center

COVID tests: Do at-home tests work on newer variants?

Harvard Health

If you develop respiratory symptoms, you may worry that you have COVID-19. One easy way to check is with an at-home COVID test. These tests are widely available at drugstores, supermarkets, and online retailers like Amazon.

Here’s a closer look at at-home COVID tests: how they work, when to test, and how to get free COVID test kits.

How do at-home COVID tests work?

COVID-19 is caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus. At-home over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 tests look for proteins from the SARS CoV-2 virus. These proteins are called antigens. Results from rapid, at-home antigen tests are often available within 15 minutes. If you test positive, you are very likely to be infected. However, there is a higher chance of false negatives with antigen tests, which means that you could test negative and still have an active infection.

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