Framingham Will Get Rapid, At-Home Coronavirus Tests From State

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Framingham will be one of 102 communities across Massachusetts that will get a delivery of rapid antigen tests for residents, part of a new effort by announced Monday by state officials to ramp up COVID-19 testing before Christmas.

The state will begin delivering 2.1 million at-home tests to cities and towns on Tuesday. The at-home tests are available to buy at stores, but can run as high as $25 per kit. The free tests are being sent to communities where residents may not be able to afford to buy at-homes kits.

“With the holidays approaching, we encourage residents to utilize rapid tests as a convenient way to keep family members and friends safe at gatherings,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in a news release. “While these tests are widely available at many pharmacies and retail locations across the state, we are making it even easier for residents to get free rapid testing through these initiatives.”

The tests being given out by the state are made by the company iHealth, which says the tests can provide results within about 15 minutes using a nasal swab. At-home tests are generally less sensitive than the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) version. Results from at-home tests could produce either false-negative or false-positive results, iHealth warns in literature about its tests.

"Antigen tests are known to be less sensitive than molecular tests that detect viral nucleic acids. The amount of antigen in a sample may decrease as the duration of illness increases," the company said in a fact sheet. "In symptomatic patients, specimens collected after day 5 of illness may be more likely to be negative compared to a [PCR test]."

After the state distributes tests on Tuesday, it'll be up to individual cities and towns how to get them to residents.