You may not need to throw out those ‘expired’ Covid-19 home tests

CNN — Four free home Covid-19 antigen tests are available to order at COVIDTests.gov, part of the seventh round of the federal government’s test-distribution program. It may be tempting to throw away those tests or other Covid-19 home test kits that are labeled near their expiration dates, but the US Food and Drug Administration is encouraging people to check its website for extensions before possibly throwing away perfectly good tests. The FDA says shelf life is “how long the test should work as expected and is measured from the date the test was manufactured.” The expiration date is “set at the end of the shelf-life and is the date through which the test is expected to perform as accurately as when manufactured.” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says that some Covid-19 tests can continue to function properly up to a year after the expiration date on their label, assuming they are stored properly. “They periodically take them off the shelf two months, four months, six months, et cetera, and see how well they work in order to provide the Food and Drug Administration assurance that they will still function as intended.” Experts recommend taking a Covid-19 test if you develop symptoms such as cough, fever, shortness of breath and fatigue.