FDA Urges People To Check For Expiration Date Extensions Before Throwing Away COVID-19 Tests

CNN (10/30, Tupper) reports, “Four free home Covid-19 antigen tests are available to order at COVIDTests.gov, part of the seventh round of the federal government’s test-distribution program.” Even though “this round of test orders has been going on for only a month, some people have reported that some tests are nearing their expiration date.” It could “be tempting to throw away those tests or other Covid-19 home test kits that are labeled near their expiration dates, but the” FDA “is encouraging people to check its website for extensions before possibly throwing away perfectly good tests.” Vanderbilt University Medical Center professor of infectious diseases William Schaffner “says that some Covid-19 tests can continue to function properly up to a year after the expiration date on their label, assuming they are stored properly.”