More free COVID tests are being made available for additional orders for Americans. They can get them from the U.S. government. They will be shipped to their homes like has been done before. What does this mean for Americans who want them?
At a Glance
- U.S. government is making more free COVID test kits available for Americans.
- President Biden announced this move during his State of the Union address.
- Families can get up to eight tests delivered to their homes.
- Those who got four tests in the first round can get four more now.
More Free COVID Tests Are Now Available To Order
Right now, those free at-home COVID tests can be picked up from the website COVIDtests.gov. They will be shipped to Americans’ homes, the White House said on Monday.
Every American household can order up to eight total tests. If you ordered four in January, then you can get four more. President Joe Biden did announce this in his State of the Union address. Then, on Monday, the White House released a video telling people the website was ready to go again. Let’s get some info with a little help from NPR.
“Get your free tests today,” Biden said, urging people to have them on hand “so we’re prepared no matter what COVID brings.” It is reported that more than half of U.S. households ordered tests in January and February. “The way that we set this up was to make sure that every household who wanted these tests could get them before we made a second round available,” White House testing coordinator Tom Inglesby told NPR.
Tests Will Be Shipped Immediately Upon Being Ordered
Back in January, some tests didn’t ship within the seven- to 12-day window that had been promised. Why? Because the administration was waiting for manufacturers to make more tests. For this round, though, test scarcity is not a problem.
“As we open up this second round, we are going to be shipping immediately,” Inglesby said. “We have a fairly substantial stock of new tests ready to be shipped, so we expect orders to be delivered quickly.”
Free COVID tests were being offered when cases were surging with the omicron variant. Tests were hard to find in stores for many people. So, the president committed the government to buy 1 billion tests to distribute. COVID case numbers have dropped a lot since January.
The Biden administration is turning to the new phase of its response. This will emphasize getting back to normal while being ready for the possibility that a new variant could emerge and cause case numbers to spike once again. These free COVID tests are going to be delivered right to your doorstep once ordered.
