Free at-home COVID-19 test program will restart late September
In this photo illustration, free iHealth COVID-19 antigen rapid tests from the federal government sit on a U.S. Postal Service envelope after being delivered on Feb. 04, 2022 in San Anselmo, California. (Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Free at-home COVID-19 tests will once again be available to order beginning in late September.
The U.S. Health and Human Services department announced on Friday that the free tests will be eligible to ship to homes across the country but has not set an exact date for when they will be available.
U.S. households will be allowed to order up to four test kits once the federal program reopens.
The tests will be equipped to detect current virus strains and can be ordered ahead of the holiday season, an HHS spokesperson said.
Staying ahead of the surge
The announcement comes as the government is once again urging people to get an updated COVID-19 booster, ahead of the fall and winter respiratory virus season.
Earlier this week, U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine that is designed to combat the recent virus strains and, hopefully, forthcoming winter ones, too. Vaccine uptake is waning, however. Most Americans have some immunity from prior infections or vaccinations, but data shows under a quarter of U.S. adults took last fall's COVID-19 shot.
The Biden administration has given out 1.8 billion COVID-19 tests, including half distributed to households by mail. It’s unclear how many tests the feds have on hand.
Tens of billions of tax-payer dollars have been used to develop COVID-19 tests, vaccines and treatments.
Although deaths and serious infections have dropped dramatically since COVID-19 started its U.S. spread in 2020, hospitalizations have started to slightly creep up in recent weeks. In total, more than 1 million Americans have died from the virus.