— Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission.
As the highly-contagious omicron variant …
— Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission. As the highly-contagious omicron variant continues to spread at a rapid pace, with U.S. COVID-19 cases hitting record highs, the at-home COVID-19 test has become a valuable resource in helping identify COVID-19 positive cases and slow the spread of the virus. « [At-home COVID-19 tests] are really great public health tools, » says Dr. Sabrina Assoumou, an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center. That said, they’re not so easy to get your hands on. Many major retailers are working to keep up with the high demand, with brands like CVS, Walgreens and Amazon limiting the amount of COVID-19 tests you can purchase to ensure more households can get access to them. Start off the New Year with deals and shopping advice delivered straight to your phone. Sign up for text message alerts from the experts at Reviewed. While it may be difficult to find at-home COVID-19 tests near you, it’s not impossible—retailers are working to restock these tests as quickly as possible given the growing demand. Here’s what to know about the different kinds of at-home COVID-19, when you should be testing, where to look for an at-home test and what to do if you can’t find an at-home test. Editor’s Note: As of January 8, 2022, the Biden administration is now requiring private insurers to cover up to eight over-the-counter home COVID-19 tests per month for insurance members. Americans will be able to either purchase at-home testing kits for free or submit receipts for reimbursement through their insurance provider. Read here for more details. While COVID-19 at-home tests quickly sell out, retailers are working to restock just as quickly. « We continue to work around the clock to provide our stores with inventory of the five over-the-counter at-home COVID-19 tests we offer, » says Matt Blanchette, retail communications at CVS Pharmacy. The Biden administration says that Americans will soon be able to request free at-home tests to be mailed to their homes beginning this month. In the meantime, major retailers sell at-home COVID-19 tests online for anywhere from $9.99 to $124.99 per test kit. For in-stock tests, you may find the price to be higher than they were last year —that’s because retailers like Walmart, Kroger and Amazon had been selling over-the-counter tests at up to a 35% discount as part of a deal with the Biden administration which has now expired. These retailers sell at-home tests online and in-store: While all at-home PCR tests (along with other PCR tests performed at pharmacies or testing sites) are sent to a laboratory to process your results, some at-home antigen tests can give you your results from the privacy of your own home.
