KSNT 27 News

Take-home COVID tests are a thing of the past for some Kansas county health departments

TOPEKA (KSNT) — The Riley County Health Department announced Thursday that it would no longer be offering take-home saliva COVID-19 testing kits.

The county will still offer other types of testing methods at the health department though, as long as an appointment is made before hand.

This differs from the Shawnee County Health Department, which did away with take-home COVID tests back in October, but has also stopped offering COVID testing at the department building. Instead, it encourages people to visit various different locations in the community that are supported and funded by the state, where testing is still available.

An official at the Shawnee County Health Department said that the saliva at-home tests weren’t always the most efficient, especially for younger children.

“For the saliva testing, sometimes that can be a little bit more difficult, especially as you’re looking at it for kids,” Craig Barnes, the division manager said. “It can be difficult to collect that full five millimeters of saliva that you need and also, as odd as it sounds, you’re not able to get that saliva from as far back as you really need it.” 

To counter the elimination of saliva testing, Shawnee County has adopted multiple other testing methods they use at their different testing sites. If you need to find a place near you to get tested for COVID-19, you can visit this website.