Americans will be able to order free at-home Covid-19 tests under the Biden Administration, a half-billion tests will be available, in a bid to increase access to free testing and curb the Omicron variant cases.
Officials are hopeful that tests will be delivered at the end of the month, while the Omicron Variant increases Covid-19 cases in the US.
The program will allow four free tests per residential address, to promote broad access, stated a White House briefing. A half-billion tests will be available to order directly through the US Postal Service order form starting Jan. 18 and on COVIDTest.gov starting Jan. 19.
The project is set to purchase one billion at-home, rapid Covid-19 tests to give to Americans for free.
Currently, there are over 420 million tests secured and ready for the website launch, while the last 80 million are being finalized.
“This is an unprecedentedly large purchase,” said an official, “And it’s been going at a fast speed – really fast. And so, we’re confident we’re going to get the rest under contract.”
The White House estimates the cost of purchasing and distributing the first 500 million at-home tests at around $4 billion. This will be paid from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill Biden signed into law in March – the same bill that provided economic relief for qualifying Americans last year.
The CDC recommends getting tested five days after being exposed to Covid-19.
Tests can be ordered online at COVIDTests.gov and will ship out with USPS within seven to 12 days.
Americans only need their name and residential address to make an order. If they want to track their order status they’d need to share their email address.