Wisconsin residents are being urged to take every precaution when checking their COVID-19 status, including making sure to check the test’s expiration day.
“When a lot of these home tests were first developed, there wasn’t a lot of data on shelf life,” Madison & Dane County Public Health official Morgan Finke told NBC15.com. “The FDA does not recommend using at-home tests beyond their authorized expiration dates. So definitely you want to check.”
Finke is urging everyone to be sure they are making the right checks and basing their actions on the proper standards.
“Let’s say you have a test that reads July 21 is when it expires,” she added. “If it is one of those companies that filed for an extension, it’s actually not going to expire until October 20th. That’s that three months beyond that date."
Count Scott Zimmerman is among those who’ve heard the message loud and clear.
“If I go to a concert and then I’m seeing older relatives or something, I take a test before I go to that event and know I’m not potentially endangering people,” he said.
Given that it normally takes years to get dates solidified, and because Covid-19 at-home tests are essentially a new invention, Finke reasons the changing dates and timeframes are a part of the process that should be expected.
“It’s proof we continue to learn about Covid and all of the things from treatment to vaccines to testing,” she said. “We have researching going on constantly to learn and improve, and these at-home tests are no exception.”
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