With Covid cases still high across the country, Scots are urged to take lateral flow tests regularly and before socialising.
However, many of us may be taking the rapid tests wrong, especially if we are infected with the Omicron variant of the virus.
Lateral flow test (LFTs) kits include instructions that state only a swab from the nasal area is needed to accurately test for the virus.
This is different from the older version of the tests where both a nose and throat swab were required.
But according to one medical professional, these new tests could be missing Omicron infection, reports Glasgow Live.
Taking to TikTok, Dr Karan Rajan, an NHS general surgeon and honorary clinical lecturer at the University of Sunderland, replied to a video where a woman claimed that the omicron variant lives more in your throat.
And according to the doctor, who has been featured in several NHS videos, this is actually correct.
Explaining the reasoning behind this, Dr Rajan said: "Omicron is different to the other variants and the symptoms start earlier.
"So there's a chance the virus isn't yet growing in the nose when you first test - it may be starting further down.
"If you're using a lateral flow test, make sure you swab your throat as well as the nostrils. Getting samples from both areas can increase the sensitivity of the test.
"There have been multiple cases now where people are testing negative with nose-only samples but then testing positive when they add in a throat sample."
Due to the new LFT instructions, one person took to the comments and asked: "Some lateral flow kits just say nose, some say nose and throat. I don't understand why they need to be different?"
The NHS surgeon responded: "I'd just do both regardless of instructions" and later stated in another reply that both swabs were "standard at the beginning of the pandemic, not sure why that went away."
Another social media user also took to the comments of his video and added: "Thanks to TikTok after three negative tests I swabbed my throat and I am in fact positive and so is my whole family."
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