US relaunches program providing free at-home COVID-19 tests
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Key takeaways:
- Free at-home COVID-19 tests will be available for order starting on Sept. 25.
- A $600 million investment in domestic home test manufacturing is expected to shore up U.S. supplies.
Free at-home COVID-19 tests will be available for mail order again in the United States beginning on Monday, Sept. 25.
U.S. households will be able to order four free COVID-19 tests at COVIDTests.gov. The tests will be able to detect currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, HHS said.
The Biden administration also announced a $600 million investment in 12 U.S. companies to manufacture and ship roughly 200 million over-the-counter home COVID-19 tests.
“The Biden-Harris administration, in partnership with domestic manufacturers, has made great strides in addressing vulnerabilities in the U.S. supply chain by reducing our reliance on overseas manufacturing,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a press release. “These critical investments will strengthen our nation’s production levels of domestic at-home COVID-19 rapid tests and help mitigate spread of the virus.”
It will be the fifth round of free tests distributed by the U.S. government, which has sent out more than 755 million COVID-19 tests since the start of the pandemic. The last free test program was launched in December 2022 after weeks of growing numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
According to CDC tracking, there was a 7.7% increase in COVID-19-related hospitalizations in the U.S. from Sept. 3 to 9, the most recent week with available data. There was a 4.5% increase in COVID-19-related deaths.
The CDC recently recommended new COVID-19 vaccines for people aged 6 months and older, which target new subvariants of SARS-CoV-2.
References:
- CDC. COVID data tracker: Data updated for the United States. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home. Accessed Sept. 21, 2023.
- Biden-Harris administration awards $600 million to bolster US manufacturing of COVID-19 tests and re-opening of COVIDTests.gov. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/09/20/biden-harris-administration-awards-600-million-bolster-us-manufacturing-covid-19-tests-announces-re-opening-covidtestsgov.html. Published Sept. 20, 2023. Accessed Sept. 21, 2023.
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