Rapid COVID-19 home tests surge in India, experts flag risks

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and SHONAL GANGULY
Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — The use of rapid home tests has surged in India on the back of omicron cases, which have recently begun to decline. But experts have voiced caution, saying home tests are less accurate than lab-run PCR tests and that since not all results are being reported, new variants or future clusters may go undetected. Still, home tests have helped take some burden off hospitals and health workers, with many people with mild symptoms isolating at home. In the first 20 days of January, around 200,000 people shared their test results with India’s health agency – a 66-fold increase compared to all of 2021.