Home testing for COVID-19: Benefits and limitations

The home test kits for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection with Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization primarily either isothermal nucleic acid amplification or antigen detection, each has advantages limitations in terms of sensitivity specificity, cost, results reporting, turnaround time. In clinical studies, these tests provide accurate positive symptomatic individuals, although negative are less accurate. There also accuracy concerns asymptomatic individuals. These factors have implications their interpretation use.