Popular At-Home Rapid Covid Test Accurately Detects Omicron Variant

Special Note: All residential households in the U.S. can order one set of 4 free at-home tests from USPS.com. Complete your order form at www.special.usps.com/testkits.

Health professionals and government officials have recently raised concerns about the accuracy of rapid antigen tests, especially in regards to testing for the omicron variant. However, according to data collected from a real-world study of 700 people who visited a walk-up testing site in San Francisco, one of the most commonly used at-home tests, the Abbott BinaxNOW, is very accurate. The preliminary findings were that the BinaxNOW test accurately caught 98% of the individuals with high viral loads and symptoms and 90% of those without symptoms.