Why the number of COVID-19 cases reported might be skewed by at-home tests

DAYTON — Doctors are having a hard time tracking COVID-19 case numbers because most Americans are using at-home tests.

Those number of infections could be higher due to people using at-home covid tests and not reporting it.

According to Dr. Thomas Huth from Reid Health, now that so many at-home tests are being offered, fewer people are going to physicians’ offices to be tested.

“Consequently, it’s pretty clear that most people are opting to use at-home tests these days. And when they’re positive, occasionally they’ll be followed up with a PCR test.” Huth went on to say, “How many cases we have and all I don’t know it could be two to three times higher than what is making it into the official statistics may be even higher.”

News Center 7′s Dontre Drexelius found that cases not being reported isn’t the only concern people have.

Huth tells us that at-home tests may not be as reliable due to a couple of reasons.

“Rare they have false positives, but those can occur. But they’re really unusual. More likely there will be false negatives. And that’s because operator error and doing all the steps correctly, but more importantly, then there’s a, a smaller window of time, during which someone will be positive on the test. If they have COVID-19,″ Huth said.

Different brands work differently when it comes to results and how accurate the results are.

We asked Huth what brand you should use if you’re at home and how you could get the best reading.

It’s suggested that if you’re having symptoms, you should contact your doctor even if you using an at-home test.

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