COVID Home Tests | USPS
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COVID Home Tests | USPS

If you haven't ordered any at all from them since September, you're allowed to place 2 orders instead of 1.

Each order gives you two packs of 2.

Be sure to swab your throat after swabbing nose to avoid a false negative.

Like this:

Show throat swab

The UK DHSC's official instructions:

Hold the handle of the swab with your fingers. Open your mouth wide. Rub the soft tip of the swab over both tonsils 4 times. Tonsils are soft pads at the back of your throat, 1 on each side. If you have no tonsils rub the swab on the sides of your throat.

Throat rapid tests are preferred because COVID variants from Omicron onward gather in your throat, not your nose.

Update: From JN.1 onwards, it's back to your nose again.

Article about the difference: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-throat-swab-for-omicron-at-home-experts-2022-1

The FDA has authorized just one method of taking a COVID-19 rapid test: swabbing the inside of your nose.

But ever since Omicron came into force in the US in mid-December, some people have noted on social media that their rapid tests only come back positive after adding saliva to the mix.

Medical journal article: Saliva swabs are the preferred sample for Omicron detection

Rapid tests in other countries call them nose and throat kits now, because they're not behind like the FDA is.

  • roux [he/him, comrade/them]5•5 months ago

    Thanks for the heads up. All of my tests are expired and I still def feel like we aren't out of the woods yet with the recent surge of new cases. Literally everyone in my and my wife's family has gotten it now and we've managed to doge it somehow. I am starting to feel like we are on borrowed time lol.

    • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]5•5 months ago

      there's also expiration extensions: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list

      • roux [he/him, comrade/them]3•5 months ago

        Hey thanks for sharing. I just checked and all of mine are actually from 2022 lol. Big sad.

  • Infamousblt [any]3•5 months ago

    That is some seriously good information, thanks for sharing