Arlington County announced Tuesday that it is opening two kiosks to offer no-cost COVID-19 testing to residents, using a test that the Food and Drug Administration has said can produce false results. Still, epidemiologists and other cities say there is still benefit to expanding testing options as cases are on the rise.

The Arlington kiosks will use tests made by the private company Curative based in San Dimas, California. Hannah Winant, a spokesperson for the Arlington County Department of Public Safety, said the kiosks will be open seven days a week from noon to 8 p.m., and they will require no ID, no insurance and no payment. Instead, patients will swab their mouths under the supervision of a Curative worker, and they will receive results within 48 to 72 hours.

Winant said Curative will bill insurance providers for people with insurance, and will attempt to bill the Health Resources and Services Administration for the uninsured. She said the county will assume the costs for people who are not covered.

“We’re hopeful we’ll continue to fill that need for testing and have consciously located them in communities that have been more disproportionately impacted by the virus,” Winant said.

Arlington is rolling out the testing kiosks as Virginia has seen a rise in COVID cases. The state reported 4,561 new cases and 84 new deaths on Tuesday, nearly breaking a previous record of 96 deaths in mid-September. Arlington has a 9.7% positivity rate, which is higher than the 5% threshold epidemiologists say marks community spread.

Last week the FDA warned of a “risk of false results, particularly false negative results” with Curative’s tests. This means some patients might falsely believe they are not infected with COVID-19, even if they are. In particular, the FDA noted that it had provided emergency use authorization for the Curative test for symptomatic patients, while the county will be allowing anyone to get tested without a doctor’s referral.

Epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said a risk of false negatives would “not necessarily disqualify the test” in her eyes.

“What we’re seeing now is that case numbers are growing but we are not expanding the number of people we’re testing to keep up,” she told DCist/WAMU. “Giving people different options to be tested is the way to do that.”

Nuzzo said some people might be put off by more onerous steps to getting tested, like looking up a county testing site or making an appointment.  By expanding the testing options, Arlington could help pick up more cases and sick people would know to stay home. Still, Nuzzo cautioned that patients must know how to use their results.

“If people go get tested and assume that a negative test result is permission, a guarantee of safety, and then they go out and party and the test result is wrong — you would worry about the test,” she said.

Curative is running testing across the country. The AP reported that Congress, which uses the tests, was searching for an alternative, while cities like Los Angeles have stuck with the test that they said proved helpful.

Asked about the FDA alert, Winant said, “Curative is following FDA guidelines to ensure testing accuracy, and will offer on-site Curative staff to assist visitors in the collection process.”

The kiosks will open Wednesday in two parking lots in Arlington — at Tucker Field at Barcroft Park and the Aurora Hills Community Center.