Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Rapid COVID tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

But if the tests work much better when taken three times over the course of several days.
A woman in a lab coat and gloves swabs her own nose.

Rapid tests for COVID-19 excel at detecting infections in people with symptoms but miss many infections in those without symptoms. Credit: Lukas Schulze/Getty

Rapid antigen tests are much more reliable at detecting COVID-19 in people with symptoms than in those without, finds the largest study to compare home rapid tests with gold-standard PCR tests1.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 619, 439 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02254-9

References

  1. Soni, A. et al. Ann. Intern. Med. https://doi.org/10.7326/M23-0385 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links