CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For many people, getting together with loved ones can be a dangerous proposition so they’re looking to get tested for COVID-19 before being around high-risk individuals.
Some businesses and even colleges are requiring people to get tested.
Rapid tests sound like the best bet, but are they?
Kimberly Burns, a single mom of two from Gastonia, wasn’t feeling so hot and as someone who works at urgent care, she was concerned she might have been exposed to the virus.
“I developed a weird type of headache for a few days while I was at work and the third day I developed a cough," Burns said.
She decided to take a rapid test.
“It was a little scary, to be honest, waiting on the results," she remembered.
She only had to wait 20 minutes to find out she was positive and immediately went home to quarantine with her two kids.
“That is going to provide opportunities to lessen the spread of the disease and hopefully get it under control," said Dr. Todd Rudolph, the medical director for AFC Urgent Cares in Tennessee and North Carolina.
The medical group is ramping up rapid testing. They just added a third rapid testing site in Charlotte and plan to add a fourth in a few weeks.
"The key factor to beginning to be able to control the disease is to have adequate testing- more testing you have more information,” Rudolph said.
Rapid testing helps to immediately begin contact tracing, but critics warn it can offer a false negative up to 15% of the time.
Doctors say rapid testing is a better option for people who have symptoms and have had a possible exposure, rather than people who are just getting tested to make sure they’re virus-free. The hope is that the rapid tests will be more accurate with time.
“I feel great now it really was miserable for the first week and a half. Symptoms got worse before they got better," Burns said.
The CDC says rapid tests are less effective because they are less sensitive.