The United States is making a $1 billion investment to get more at-home COVID-19 rapid tests on store shelves.
It comes as one brand of tests was just recalled out of concerns over a high rate of false positives.
The White House announced the investment Wednesday that could quadruple the availability for at-home rapid tests by later this year.
Some pharmacies and retailers have recently struggled to keep tests in stock or have had to place limits on how many customers can purchase.
The Ellume brand of COVID-19 tests recalled nearly 200,000 test kits because of concerns about a high-than-expected rate of false positives.
Dr. Daniel La, medical director at AFC Urgent Care Long Island, tests around 200 patients a day for COVID-19. He says at-home tests are convenient, but there’s a lot of human error.
“Socio-economically these at-home tests are good in theory and good for exposure,” La says. “However, if you get a false positive now, you have this whole headache of quarantining, telling your friends and panicking of who you met, who you talked to and they have to get tested.”
He also says people should visit a professional health clinic to confirm their COVID-19 test results.