ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. – July 6 was a date when Linda Wood looked at it twice.
“My first reaction was: what am I going to do? I have to throw them away,” said Albuquerque resident Linda Wood.
Than the expiration date of the COVID-19 check given to you by the federal government in October.
“Which confuses me, because I knew I asked for it after that,” Wood said.
When she might not have been able to go to the doctor (and learned that an immediate test for urgent care might cost her only $70), she phoned the company.
“They said that they’re extending it for nine months,” Wood said.
The FDA recently extended the shelf life of 20 other tests you can get simply by mail.
“What happened, to be able to release those checks quickly, they didn’t have a year or two to check and see if they were still working. So they shortened them to six months, which allowed us to get the checks into people’s hands quickly,” said Mirando Durham, NMDOH’s chief medical officer.
Behind the scenes, they were working on a more accurate expiration timeline.
Durham says you can at least use an expired check as a starting point while you wait for a new one.
“Officially, we shouldn’t be using expired tests. But if it’s been well-kept and preserved, it’s probably OK as a starter to check,” said Durham. “If it’s been sitting in your car and getting to 100 degrees in the summer, and you know, down to freezing in the winter, like that test isn’t going to be as reliable, whether it’s expired or not.”
Durham says an expired check can simply produce a false negative or a false positive in some cases.
In the meantime, Wood adds this to his ever-growing list of COVID-19-related uncertainties:
“They should have really broadcasted that you can continue to use these for nine months. They really should have made a bigger point about that. Because I didn’t know, and I don’t know that many people do,” said Wood.
The Ministry of Health reminds New Mexicans that now is a wonderful time to receive a COVID-19 booster vaccine.
They say across the board vaccination numbers for the newest booster are low, while flu and RSV cases are starting to rise.
For a list of brands with extended expiration dates, click here.
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