Amid questions of accuracy, two rapid antigen COVID-19 tests correctly diagnosed most infections among nearly 800 people experiencing symptoms, researchers found.
One of the tests, InBios International's SCoV-2 Ag Detect Rapid Self-Test, accurately diagnosed infections between 81.2 percent to 90.7 percent of the time. The other at-home test, Abbott's BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card, found similar results, according to the study published Aug. 14 in JAMA.
The research, which was conducted by researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of Nevada in Reno, also found "no significant differences" across different variants and subvariants. Together, the diagnostic specificity was 99.8 percent.
"Although more clinical studies are needed, the ongoing home-based rapid antigen testing programs may be an important intervention to reduce global SARS-CoV-2 transmission," they wrote.