Rapid covid test kits are no longer difficult to find. Washington state and the federal government are giving them away for free. But many people aren’t signing up to get them.
“These home test kits are critical to the next stage of dealing with COVID,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, an expert on infectious diseases at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “We want to do more things with our lives, and we want to be safe. The way to do that, in large part, is by knowing if we’re infected. And these home kits are easy to use, and they can give us the answer we need to do things safely.”
Over the weekend, Dr. Swartzberg and his wife – who are extremely careful – had their son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters over for dinner. And they did it safely by testing ahead of time.
“Before they came over, they tested. We tested. We were all negative,” he told me. “They came in without masks on, and we had a lovely dinner together and spent the evening together.”
Dr. Swartzberg says rapid test kits become more important, as the masks come off.
“You want to make sure you’re not going to spread this virus to somebody else because this virus is so insidious. It sheds itself and can transmit before you’re even symptomatic,” he explained.
More Info:
- WA households can now order 2 free COVID test kits monthly — while supplies last
- People in the U.S. can now order 4 more free Covid tests online
- CDC: Self-Testing at Home or Anywhere