So You Think Your Kid Needs a Covid Test

If you’re still unsure if your child needs a test, call their pediatrician, said Dr. Kristin Moffitt, an infectious disease specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital. You can also take the C.D.C.’s clinical assessment tool, which can be used for any family member, including children.

Which types of tests are available for kids?

Virus testing for children is, for the most part, the same as it is for adults. The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the emergency use of two basic categories of diagnostic test. The most sensitive ones are the molecular PCR tests, which detect the genetic material of the virus and can take days to deliver results (some locations offer results in as little as a day). The second type of test, the antigen test, hunts for fragments of proteins that are found on or within the coronavirus. Antigen tests typically yield results quickly, within 15 minutes, but can be less sensitive than the molecular tests.

The way your provider collects your sample can vary. For instance, regardless of whether you get a PCR test or an antigen test, the collection method could be any of the following: nasopharyngeal swab (the long swab with a brush at the end that reaches all the way up the nose toward the throat); a shorter swab that is inserted about an inch into the nostrils; a long swab of the tonsils at the back of the throat; or a short swab swizzled on the gums and cheeks. The new saliva tests, which are still being vetted, require you to drool into a sterilized container, which could 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 chief medical officers. But MedExpress, a different urgent care group with clinics in 16 states, tests all patients with the shorter nasal swab when doing either PCR or antigen tests at its nearly 200 urgent care centers, said Jane Trombetta, the company’s chief clinical officer.

Which diagnostic test should my child get?

The type of test that your child gets will largely depend on what is available in your area, how long it takes to get the results back and why the child needs it, the experts said.

Some day care centers and schools will only accept PCR results for clearance to return to school, so it is best to double check their rules beforehand.

The long-swab molecular test is considered the “gold standard,” but other less-invasive testing methods are also reliable. For routine testing, Dr. Jay K. Varma, senior advisor for public health at the Office of the Mayor of New York City, said the shorter swab “performs basically as well as the longer, deeper swab does. That’s true in both adults and children.” In fact, he added, New York City’s public hospital testing sites began switching from the long swab to the short swab during the summer.