Under revised guidance from the Food and Drug Administration, individuals who have been exposed to COVID-19 may need to take as many as three at-home tests to ensure that they are not experiencing asymptomatic infections.
The new guidance was issued last week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its own recommendations for those exposed to COVID, saying that quarantine is no longer recommended for those exposed to the virus and who are not showing symptoms.
According to the new guidance from the FDA, individuals who are exposed to COVID are recommended to take a series of at-home tests to ensure that they are not experiencing an asymptomatic infection.
If you receive a negative test result on your first test after exposure, the FDA recommends that you take another test within 48 hours if you are not experiencing symptoms. If the second test is negative, then it is recommended that you take another 48 hours following that result.
In total, the FDA recommends that patients who are not experiencing symptoms after an exposure to take three tests within a 96-hour span.
The FDA changed their recommendations based on the performance of at-home testing kits, which are expected to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus at least 80% of the time when an individual is infected.
While false negatives don’t occur often with at-home tests, false positives are even less likely, according to the FDA. As a result, if any of the three tests were to come up with a positive result, the FDA says that the patient should then adhere to CDC guidelines for positive COVID tests, whether or not they are experiencing symptoms.
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Those new CDC guidelines, released Thursday, call for an isolation period of at least five days following a positive test result.
Patients who are showing symptom improvement, and who have been fever-free for 24 hours without the use of medications, can end isolation after the fifth day, but are advised to wear a mask for at least five more days, and to stay away from immunocompromised individuals for at least six days following that isolation period.
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