Broome COVID-19 Clinics & Test Kit Expiration Date Extensions

The Broome County Health Department is urging residents to get their children up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations as the Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency authorization for the Pfizer vaccine booster for children aged five to 11.

A Pediatric Pfizer first and second dose and booster clinic will be held June 2 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Health Department in addition to a weekly vaccine clinic held every Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m.

Photo: Bob Joseph/WNBF News (file)

Meanwhile, Broome County Health officials are advising residents that the expiration dates for some over-the-counter COVID-19 rapid home tests is being extended. Those tests are iHealth, CareStart, BinaxNow, Flowflex and SCoV-2 AgDetect Rapid Self Test.

If your kit is not on the extended list and has expired, it should be thrown out. The Health Department says it’s a good idea to open the expired test kit before disposal or clearly mark on the container that the contents are expired.

For kits on the FDA’s extension list, residents having unused kits in their home should cross out the old expiration date on the box and the new expiration date, found at the manufacturing companies’ website, should be written on the box of the tests that are included in the extension.

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The Health Department says, "Expiration extensions are not unusual for medical devices like tests. Manufacturers continue to study the performance and efficacy of tests after they have received authorization and report these findings to the FDA. In these cases, the FDA has agreed that the tests work to detect the COVID-19 virus for longer than the manufacturers originally expected."

Find the individual extended kits' information:

iHealth COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test

CareStart COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card Home Test and BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self Test

Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test

SCoV-2 Ag Detect Rapid Self-Test

The Health Department, in its news release notes: "Please note that this information is current as of May 25, 2022. For additional EUA revisions and expiration extensions for over the counter antigen tests, please check the FDA website here: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-emergency-use-authorizations-medical-devices/in-vitro-diagnostics-euas-antigen-diagnostic-tests-sars-cov-2"

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