At-Home COVID-19 Testing Complicates Community Case Tracking

As home COVID-19 tests are distributed to households across the country, health officials are deliberating the best way to track the results.  

The federal government is providing four free tests to every household, according to Fox 4 News. Since the tests are administered at home, officials don’t have a specific way to track community outbreaks.   

In North Texas, Denton and Tarrant counties have already created websites so residents can self-report their results.   

Denton County Chief Epidemiologist, Juan Rodriguez, told Fox 4, “At-home tests are one more way people are getting tested, and we wanted to make sure we could capture what is happening in community transmission.”   

The CDC and the state of Texas classify home results as suspected cases, so they are not included in any official counts. According to Fox 4, this is what has kept Dallas County from following Denton and Tarrant’s lead.   

UNT Clinical Epidemiologist Dr. Shane Fernando warned that the rise in home testing could skew the data regarding community transmissions.   

“We are under-reporting the number of cases of COVID that exist in our community,” Fernando told Fox 4. “That’s something that has been known for a while. Individuals who are asymptomatic, who feel like they have the cold, or might just have allergies, or a slight fever, may not necessarily go and get tested with a PCR or at their health provider. So we’ve always known there has been an under-reporting of COVID cases in our community. With increase in at-home tests, we expect that there will be an even greater number of unreported cases. That means that our public health systems are going to have a harder time predicting where and when outbreaks are occurring.”  

Fernando added that anyone taking a home test can report their results to their doctor. From there, the doctor can report cases to the CDC and the state.   

The Better Business Bureau warns consumers to make sure they obtain their free COVID tests from the official government website. According to Amy Rasor, the Fort Worth regional director for the BBB, scam sites have already popped up.   

“We are cautious about fake sites where you receive a link to order your tests, and these are phishing scams,” Rasor told Fox 4. “You might see a redirect, it might look official with a U.S. Postal Service logo, but when you look at the actual web address, it won’t match up.”  

Any sites asking for more than an address, name, and email are likely scams, according to Fox 4.   

Rasor said, “The danger is identity theft or insurance fraud, asking for that insurance information and people will file claims on your policy.”   

Lloyd Whelchel, the chief of the White Collar Crime Unit in Tarrant County, added there are also fake in-person testing sites that set out to scam people.   

Whelchel said, “When you get there, ask basic questions. What kind of test are you getting? What lab is it going to? Ask what their credentials are. If they can’t answer those questions, they are obviously not a legitimate site.”   

The Biden administration made these home-tests available by request to the American public beginning on January 19. “Testing is an important tool to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” reads a statement from the White House. “To help ensure Americans have tests on hand if a need arises, the Biden Administration is purchasing one billion at-home, rapid COVID-19 tests to give to Americans for free.”