SAN DIEGO — Take-home COVID tests are flying off the shelves at pharmacies across the county. With the omicron variant rapidly spreading, more and more San Diegans are swabbing their nose at home to make sure they don't have COVID-19 before visiting family and friends for the holidays.
Doctors are glad people are taking precautions.
“We encourage people to utilize these tests because, in this pandemic right now, what we really need is for people to not be spreading this disease asymptomatically,” said Dr. David Pride with UC San Diego Health.
Research shows that a home test, administered properly, is about 85% accurate at detecting positive cases. They aren’t perfect, but doctors say that’s good enough to offer peace of mind. Dr. Pride says the home, antigen tests aren't generally as sensitive as the ones people wait in line for at county sites - which are called PCR tests.
But a negative home test, even if you have the omicron variant, could mean your viral load at the moment is relatively low.
“While it's not a sort of carte blanche to go out and do anything, go maskless, etc., it can give you a bit of confidence that you're probably not terribly contagious,” Dr. Pride said.
This is why it is encouraged, especially if you know you've been exposed to COVID, to take multiple tests. In fact, that's why two of them come in every box. Doctors recommend testing yourself two times within three days, ideally 36 hours between tests.
“I would encourage people, even if you're asymptomatic and you feel fine and you're going to interact with grandma or other potentially elderly relatives who may be at a higher risk than say you are, to get tested,” Pride said.
A major benefit to the take-home tests is that results are returned in about 15 minutes, versus waiting days for PCR test results. So if you are getting together with others, you can take the test right before the event. And because omicron is so contagious, doctors recommend you try to do as much as possible outdoors - even if everyone is vaccinated and tests negative. If that’s not possible, he recommends wearing a mask indoors.
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