If you’re still unsure whether your child needs a test, call your pediatrician, said Dr. Kristin Moffitt, an infectious disease specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital. You can also use the CDC’s clinical assessment tool, which can be used by any family member, including children.
What types of tests are available for children?
The virus test for children is, for the most part, the same as for adults. The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the emergency use of two basic categories of diagnostic testing. The most sensitive are molecular PCR tests, which detects the genetic material of the virus and can take days to deliver results (some sites offer results in just one day). The second type of test, the antigen test, hunts fragments of proteins that are found in or inside the coronavirus. Antigen tests usually produce results quickly, within 15 minutes, but can be less sensitive than molecular tests.
The way your provider collects your sample can vary. For example, regardless of whether you have a PCR test or an antigen test, the collection method can be any of the following: nasopharyngeal swab (the long swab with a brush at the end that reaches the entire nose to the throat); a shorter cotton swab that is inserted about an inch into the nostrils; a long cotton swab from the tonsils at the back of the throat; or a small cotton swab on the gums and cheeks. The new saliva tests, which are still being examined, require you to drink in a sterile container, which can be difficult for young children.
FastMed Urgent Care, which has a network of more than 100 clinics in Arizona, North Carolina and Texas, currently uses a long swab to perform the rapid antigen test and a short swab for the PCR test, said Dr. Lane Tassin , one of the company’s medical directors. But MedExpress, a different urgent care group with clinics in 16 states, tests all patients with the shortest nasal swab when undergoing PCR or antigen tests at its nearly 200 urgent care centers, said Jane Trombetta, clinical director of the company .
What diagnostic test should my child do?
The type of test your child will take will largely depend on what is available in your area, how long it takes to get the results back and why the child needs them, experts said.
Some daycare centers and schools only accept PCR results to allow them to return to school, so it is best to check the rules in advance.
The long swab molecular test is considered the “gold standard”, but other less invasive test methods are also reliable. For routine testing, Dr. Jay K. Varma, senior public health consultant in the New York City Mayor’s Office, said the shortest swab “performs basically as well as the longest and deepest swab. This is true for both adults and children ”. In fact, he added, New York City public hospital test sites began to shift from long swab to short swab over the summer.