What You Should Do , When You Have Symptoms , and Negative At-Home Test Results.br 'The New York Times' recently offered br readers a helpful guide for taking home br COVID tests and what the results mean. .br In particular, coming up with a negative br result can leave some lingering uncertainty. .br Rapid home antigen tests identify pieces br of viral proteins in a swab of your nose. .br They are designed to determine whether br there are infectious levels of the virus.br This means that lower levels of COVIDbr could still result in a negative test. .br If you test negative and you have symptoms,br don’t assume you’re negative. Assume that br the virus has not had an opportunity to grow br up yet. The symptoms might mean your br immune system is just triggering br a very early warning, Dr. Michael Mina, Chief science officer br for eMed, via 'The New York Times'.br If you test negative and you have symptoms,br don’t assume you’re negative. Assume that br the virus has not had an opportunity to grow br up yet. The symptoms might mean your br immune system is just triggering br a very early warning, Dr. Michael Mina, Chief science officer br for eMed, via 'The New York Times'.br Dr. Michael Mina, chief science officer br for eMed, suggests people get tested br on the first day of symptoms. .br If you end up with a negative result br but symptoms continue, he advises br that precautions should still be taken. .br If testing daily isn't feasible, Dr. Mina suggests br testing every 48 hours and taking br precautions until symptoms are no longer present. .br If you have symptoms and continue to test negative, the chances that you’re infectious with Covid have gone down a lot. But you probably should wear a mask that day because you have something, Dr.