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VOL. 26,
NO. 79
How reliable are at-home COVID-19 tests, really? With the potential return of the mask mandate in LA County, at-home testing will continue to be an important safety measure. By Eloin Barahona-Garcia (eloin@beaconmedianews.com)
A COVID at-home test kit. | Photo courtesy of Travis Wise/Flickr (CC BY 2.0
virus, being that they are convenient for people who have no desire to leave their homes. The ability to test for the virus without having to wait several days is a boon for everyone. However, the reliability of the tests has been continually examined,
Man using a COVID at-home test One of the hundreds of drive-thru test distribution centers that have become quite normal throughout
kit. | Photo courtesy of Jernej
the county. | Photo courtesy of Navy Medicine/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Furman/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
L
os Angeles is on the cusp of re-integrating mask mandates for the city. The current strain of COVID-19 has pushed hospitalizations to a daily average of 1,329. With the recent trajectory of COVID numbers, it seems likely that indoor masking will return.
That may not be the case as the hospitalization rate has changed in the past week, potentially quelling the need for a mask mandate. The pandemic has persisted for two years. Since 2020, the world has gone through many peaks
and valleys with the virus. Social distancing, testing and mask mandates became part of the norm for a while. While social distancing and mask mandates have since been removed, testing has since become part of everyday life. At the beginning of the
pandemic, testing stations were the main method of knowing if you had COVID or not. But with a growing desire to return to some form of normalcy came the eventual creation of at-home testing. This has been a blessing for the fight against the
are accurate for detecting if someone is infected. The downside, however, is that the process can take longer than at-home tests. Sometimes tests can arrive the next day or several days later. The obvious benefit of
“At-home tests look for viral proteins as opposed to genetic material, which makes it trickier for exact testing.” especially when compared to the widely used PCR test. Rapid COVID Testing PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing looks for genetic material of COVID-19 in the provided sample. More often than not, the results of the test
using an at-home test is that your results can arrive in less than 30 minutes. The method usually involves using the provided swab and liquid solution for the testing process. Where See COVID-19 Page 3
