Walmart and Sam’s Club selling at-home COVID test kits online. Here’s what to know

Walmart and Sam’s Club are now selling COVID-19 test collection kits online, the company announced Thursday.

The kits range in price from $99 to $135, depending on collection method — the retailers are offering both nasal swab and saliva tests — and delivery speed. Some kits also include testing for the flu.

Users will not get results at home — they must mail in their samples for lab testing.

How it works

After purchasing a code on Walmart.com or SamsClub.com, you’ll be sent a health survey, Walmart said. Once you finish the survey, “a physicians’ order is generated if appropriate,” thus completing the purchase.

You’ll then be mailed a COVID-19 test kit that you can use to collect a sample by either a nasal swab or saliva, depending on the kit you ordered. From there, you’ll send the sample into the lab for testing.

After the sample arrives at the lab, you could get results in as little as 24 to 48 hours, Walmart said.

“I’m incredibly proud to work for a company that continues to identify ways to help provide access to COVID testing while maintaining high expectations for the quality of testing and making the safety of our associates and customers a priority,” Lori Flees, senior vice president of Walmart U.S. health and wellness, said.

Experts have said saliva tests are largely as accurate as nasal swabs, McClatchy News previously reported.

At-home saliva COVID-19 test kits available in some states. How accurate are they?

Saliva tests have not been officially approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but the agency did authorize them for emergency use during the pandemic.

In October, Costco announced it would begin selling at-home COVID-19 saliva test kits online. Saliva test kits are also available for online purchase from Albertsons companies (they can’t be delivered to Minnesota).

Costco selling COVID-19 at-home test kits online. Here’s what to know

At the onset of the pandemic, Walmart opened drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites in store parking lots across the nation. In September, it launched a drone delivery pilot program, delivering COVID-19 test collection kits via drone in North Las Vegas, Nevada; Cheektowaga, New York; and El Paso, Texas.

This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Walmart and Sam’s Club selling at-home COVID test kits online. Here’s what to know."