Dr. Shah says at-home COVID-19 tests are balance between accessibility and 100% visibility

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) -The head of the Maine CDC says the only downfall of at-home COVID tests is the lack of reporting.

Dr. Nirav Shah acknowledged the trade off of transparency that comes with the accessibility of at-home tests.

Because of this, the number positive cases throughout the state is likely higher than what official case counts show.

Shah says it’s a balance between the value of having easier access versus the trade off that health departments don’t have clear vision into every single new case.

“Every single state and local health department across the country for every single epidemic or pandemic or outbreak that’s ever occurred has to grapple with the fact that we don’t always have 100% visibility, and that’s why we build models that help us estimate how much of the iceberg we are and are not seeing,” Shah said.

We’re told the BinaxNow tests detected the Omicron variant in all tests that were performed at the same sensitivity as other variants.