8 ON YOUR SIDE: Some expired COVID tests are still good to use
8 ON YOUR SIDE: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that if you have expired COVID tests at home, you may not need to throw them out just yet.
Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says that some Covid-19 tests can continue to function properly up to a year after the expiration date on their label, assuming they are stored properly.
The FDA says you should check its website to see if the expiration date has been extended before possibly throwing away perfectly good tests.
These antigen tests, often called rapid tests, detect proteins called antigens from the virus that causes Covid-19. They can provide positive or negative test results within minutes in your own home.
The FDA says shelf life is “how long the test should work as expected and is measured from the date the test was manufactured.” The expiration date is “set at the end of the shelf-life and is the date through which the test is expected to perform as accurately as when manufactured.”
Experts recommend taking a Covid-19 test if you develop symptoms such as cough, fever, shortness of breath and fatigue. Different respiratory infections can have similar symptoms, so it may be hard to know what’s causing your illness. The FDA recommends that people take several rapid tests to ensure they do not have Covid-19: two negative tests for those with symptoms and three for those without symptoms, performed 48 hours apart.
— Information from CNN
