Don’t Throw Away Those ‘Expired’ At-Home COVID Tests

A lot of us have been stockpiling at-home COVID tests, not knowing when we might need to find out on short notice whether we've been infected after a close contact.

Initially, when the Food and Drug Administration granted approval for 22 different over-the-counter at-home COVID tests, they set the expiration dates for the kits at six months, which led to a number of the tests ending up in the trash after they went unused.

But now several of those kits have had their expiration dates extended.

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AT-HOME COVID TESTS WITH EXTENDED EXPIRATION DATES

18 Months

• Celltrion USA, Inc.:
  Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Home Test
• Lucira Health, Inc:
  Lucira CHECK-IT COVID-19 Test Kit

16 Months

• ACON Laboratories, Inc:
  Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

15 months

• Abbott Diagnostics Scarborough, Inc.:
  BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card Home Test
• Abbott Diagnostics Scarborough, Inc.:
  BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self Test

13 months

• InBios International Inc:
  SCoV-2 Ag Detect Rapid Self-Test

12 months

• Access Bio, Inc.:
  CareStart COVID-19 Antigen Home Test
• Health Labs, Inc.:
  iHealth COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test
• OraSure Technologies, Inc.:
  InteliSwab COVID-19 Rapid Test

9 Months

• SD Biosensor, Inc.:
  Pilot COVID-19 At-Home Test 1

8 Months

• Detect, Inc.:
  Detect Covid-19 Test
• Maxim Biomedical, Inc.:
  MaximBio ClearDetect COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

If the Expiration Date column does not say the shelf-life is extended, that means the expiration date on the box label of your test is still correct.

Getting additional free tests is about to get more difficult.

The government now says that they will stop taking orders for free testing kits on September 2.

That announcement came on the COVID.gov website:

Ordering through this program will be suspended on Friday, September 2 because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests.

The does have a reminder that there are still 20,000 PCR testing sites nationwide, and in many cases, private insurance will reimburse you for the cost of at-home antigen tests.