When and how often should you take a rapid antigen test?

Toronto’s Associate Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Vinita Dubey, answered viewer-submitted COVID-19 related questions in a LIVE Q&A with Dilshad Burman.

By Dilshad Burman

We know you have concerns about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and we’re working to get you answers, straight from the most trusted sources in a series of LIVE Q&As where experts and officials will answer your questions.

Toronto’s Associate Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Vinita Dubey, will take your COVID-19 related questions in a LIVE interview on Thursday, Jan. 20 at 12:30 p.m. on our YouTube page as well as here on our website.


Watch the full interview with Dilshad Burman in conversation with Dr. Vinita Dubey in the video above.


One of the questions the doctor answered was about rapid antigen tests and the optimal time to take them as well as how often.

Dr. Dubey says:

I would recommend using it when you have symptoms and to save it for those times. If you have even one symptom of COVID — one of the major symptoms or two of the minor symptoms, you can take the tests and the tests are actually a way to actually rule out COVID in certain circumstances.

For in schools, if someone at home has symptoms in order to get the kid back to school, the person who has symptoms do one test, wait 24 hours and do a second test. And as long as the symptoms are getting better and the two rapid antigen tests are negative, then you’re cleared from the infection. So really we’re saying one positive is a positive. You can stop there, treat it like it’s COVID.

Two negatives 24 to 48 hours apart are required to clear isolation. And it’s not “clearance testing,” so it’s not — if you test positive, you need to then keep testing until you get a negative. That’s not it. It’s only if you have symptoms and you’re not sure if it’s COVID, if you do a test and it’s negative, you’re going to have to repeat another test to make sure that that’s negative. And then you can say, ‘okay, I have symptoms, but it’s not COVID.’

Watch the doctor’s answer below:


Scroll through some of the questions submitted to this session below.

Note: questions were moderated before appearing in the chat window

 

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