As Cases Soar, Govt. Increases No. Of Free At-home Rapid Covid Tests

As the highly transmissible subvariants of Omicron drive a rise in cases in parts of the country, the Biden Administration announced that every home in the U.S. is now eligible to order a third round of free at-home rapid Covid diagnostic tests.

U.S. households are now be able to order an additional eight free at-home tests at COVIDTests.gov, bringing the total number of free tests available to each household to 16.

In January, President Joe Biden had committed to making one billion at-home tests available to the American people for free, including half-a-billion available for ordering at COVIDTests.gov.

Since then, more than 70 million households have visited the federal government website to order at-home tests to be mailed directly to them. To date, the Administration has delivered approximately 350 million free tests to mailboxes and doorsteps across the country, in U.S. territories, and at overseas military bases, with most tests delivered by the U.S. Postal Service within 48 hours of shipping.

The third round of tests available were purchased by the federal government earlier this year with funding from the American Rescue Plan.

People who have difficulty accessing the internet or need additional support placing an order can call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489) to get help in English, Spanish, and more than 150 other languages—8am to midnight ET, 7 days a week, the White House said.

It added that due to Congress’s failure to provide additional funding for the nation’s Covid-19 response, the Administration cannot continue making the types of federal investments needed to sustain domestic testing manufacturing capacity, and it may jeopardize the federal government’s ability to provide free tests moving forward.

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