Do-it-yourself COVID-19 tests are becoming more common, and they don’t involve shoving a probe into the back of your throat through your nose: You simply swirl a swab around in the lower portion of your nasal passage.
The bad news is, you can’t do the COVID-19 testing yourself at home. After some companies began producing at-home testing kits, the FDA revised its and they’re no longer allowed.
The good news is, you can perform the test at a growing number of pharmacies. Doing your own COVID-19 test through a local pharmacy involves pulling up to a drive-thru window where a helper behind glass walks you through the process.
After you swirl a swab around in the bottom of your nose, you put the sample in a vial, seal everything up, put the kit in a drop box and drive away.
That procedure is available now at in the metropolitan D.C. area.
Of Walmart’s 16 COVID-19 testing sites serving communities in Maryland and Virginia, . More could be coming soon.
But do they work? That’s the other good news.
Multiple studies, including one conducted by the , have shown no reliability problems with self-collected specimens. Researchers publishing in the added that patient collected samples reduce the use of聽personal protective equipment聽and help protect health care workers from potential exposure.
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