What to do if your COVID test expires — or if you test positive? Here is the latest advice

Simone Jasper
Annie Spratt via Unsplash

These days, feeling sick often means grabbing a nasal swab to see if you can rule out COVID-19.

But almost three years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, what’s the latest guidance about COVID-19 tests? Here are answers to some common testing-related questions, including what to do if your at-home test kit expires or if you test positive.

When should you take a test?

People are urged to take COVID-19 tests immediately after developing symptoms of an infection, which may include cough or fever. Patients often start feeling sick within two to 14 days of exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other times health officials recommend seeking a test include:

  • At least five days after exposure to someone who tested positive

  • Before gathering with others, “especially those who are at risk of severe disease or may not be up to date on their COVID-⁠19 vaccines”

For those who want to take tests, several options are available. Health centers, pharmacies and other settings often provide rapid antigen tests and the more reliable PCR tests.

The federal government also is offering U.S. households another round of free COVID-19 tests in the mail. Those interested in ordering can request theirs at covidtests.gov.

What to do if your at-home test expires?

At-home COVID-19 test kits can expire, so it’s best to check the box for an expiration date, according to experts.

But even if the date has passed, your test kit could still be good to use. That’s because some manufacturers said they determined their tests are valid longer than expected, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on its website.

To check if your test has expired, visit the FDA website and search for your test’s brand and lot number. If you find out the test is past its shelf life, it’s best to avoid using it.

“COVID-19 tests and the parts they are made of may degrade, or break down, over time,” officials wrote. “Because of this, expired test kits could give inaccurate or invalid test results.”

Can you get a false positive?

Though experts say it’s possible to get a positive COVID-19 test result that’s inaccurate, the phenomenon isn’t common.

“These are pretty rare,” Dr. Thomas Russo, an infectious disease expert at the University at Buffalo in New York, told the health magazine Prevention for a December story, adding that “false negatives are much more likely to happen.”

For example, a Canadian study of more than 900,000 rapid antigen tests found that only 0.05% led to false positives, a research letter from January 2022 shows.

To help avoid a false positive, Prevention reported that people should follow self-test instructions and try to swab their noses in “gentle, but firm circles” to avoid picking up extra debris. You also might want to consider taking a second test for confirmation.

But since false positives are unusual, it’s likely that you have a coronavirus infection, experts say.

What to do if you test positive?

If you test positive for COVID-19, it’s recommended that you avoid spending time around others for at least five days, regardless of whether you’ve received a vaccine to help protect against serious illness. Other tips include:

  • Sharing your diagnosis with people you’ve recently seen

  • Wearing a fitted face mask if you have to spend time around others at home

When the five-day period ends, the CDC said people with improving symptoms who are “fever-free for 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medication)” can get out of isolation. But those still experiencing symptoms are encouraged to stay out of public until they’re no longer sick, and people who experienced severe symptoms or have weakened immune systems should isolate for 10 days, officials said.

“With a confirmed positive COVID-19 test, you are most likely being sent home to rest, stay away from others, and recover,” UC Davis Health in California wrote Feb. 8 on its website. “This is the case for more than 95% of people, as their symptoms do not require hospitalization.”

But more severe illness is possible, and people are urged to seek medical help right away if they have breathing issues, discolored skin or other signs of an emergency.

Doctors also can help with treatment options, including for people who are older or have health conditions that put them at risk for serious illness. Those treatments include Paxlovid, an antiviral drug that’s best taken as soon as possible, the CDC said.

Catching COVID gives you ‘durable’ protection from virus, study finds. For how long?

Can you prevent long COVID? It may depend on your lifestyle, study suggests

Advertisement