The rationale behind routine testing is that if the test misses a low-level infection one day, it is likely that it could detect a high-level infection the next time. Should unvaccinated people approach testing differently?Īs younger children remain unvaccinated, experts recommend they get tested periodically before going to school, sports practice, or a birthday party. “Rapid antigen tests should be used frequently in symptomatic individuals, but negative tests should always be confirmed ,” he told Healthline. If you are exposed to someone with COVID-19 and test negative, he said you may want another test to fully verify your negative result. Harrison Lobdell IV, MD, MPH, and a physician with TeamHealth in Austin, Texas, had a slightly different point of view and said the best times to use rapid antigen tests are when you are symptomatic. “Many events are choosing to take preventative measures: ensuring all attendees are either vaccinated, recently recovered from infection, or have tested negative for COVID-19 before entering the space and mingling with other attendees,” he said.ĭr. Because of that, it is important to take precautions such as COVID-19 testing before attending gatherings,” said Fred Turner, CEO and co-founder of Curative, a healthcare startup in the Los Angeles area providing testing and vaccinations for COVID-19. “Since COVID-19 can potentially result in asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections, individuals may exhibit no symptoms but still be able to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to other individuals. In addition, experts say it may be a good idea for people to do rapid tests before going to work or school, visiting family or friends, or attending large gatherings in order to decrease the risk of transmitting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The nice thing about rapid antigen tests with the Delta variant is that there are high concentrations of virus when you are shedding particles, so they are likely to turn out positive.”

“Ideally, people should test using rapid antigen tests on the same day that they want to know whether they have an infection or not. If you know you have been exposed to COVID-19, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends testing 3 to 5 days after exposure.Ĭioe-Peña says the best time to test is the same day you want to know if you have the infection. The CDC says antigen tests perform best in symptomatic people and within a certain number of days after symptoms appear. When is the best time to do a rapid antigen test? The advantages of rapid tests are that they are cheaper, take less time (compared to 1 or 2 days for PCRs), and are more widely accessible. This can be because either the test was administered before symptoms appeared or the level of antigens was below the lowest limit the test could detect. If rapid tests fail to detect enough antigens, they may produce a false negative. A higher viral load, which is usually a few days after infection, usually gives the most accurate results. The sensitivity of rapid antigen tests can change depending on the course of infection and viral load. While both lab-based tests such as PCR and at-home rapid antigen tests detect a current infection, the former looks for viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) instead of viral antigens. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and PCR tests are the most commonly used NAAT techniques. The current “gold standard” for clinically diagnosing COVID-19 is laboratory-based nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs). Studies have shown that antigen tests have comparable sensitivity to lab tests.

If you present with COVID-19 symptoms, and want to see if you have the disease, rapid tests are quite reliable and can offer similar accuracy as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests processed in labs.

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