At-Home COVID-19 Test Collection Underway In Wisconsin

The state has begun distributing and receiving at-home test kits for COVID-19.

The Evers Administration announced in December it had partnered with Vault Medical Services to provide saliva-based tests for free.

Traci DeSalvo of the Department of Health Services told WPR’s “The Morning Show” that of the more than 12,000 kits ordered, more than 1,600 have been returned as of last week.

“People are ordering a kit and having it on hand for when they’re ready,” she said. “It’s a tool in your medicine cabinet so that if you do become symptomatic or have an exposure to COVID, you have a test ready to go.”

Users must collect a saliva sample while a testing supervisor looks on via Zoom.

“They need to collect about a tablespoon of your saliva to do that test,” DeSalvo said. “You drop it into a UPS dropbox — they have to be returned using UPS — and then those results come back to you by email.”

Residents send samples back using prepaid labels that come with the kits.

Tests are available through the DHS website, and results typically come back 48 to 72 hours later.