US will resume offering free at-home Covid-19 tests
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US households will receive four test kits.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON – The Biden administration, looking ahead to a possible winter surge of Covid-19, announced on Wednesday that it is reviving its programme of offering Americans free coronavirus tests through the mail and will spend US$600 million (S$820.5 million) to buy tests from a dozen domestic manufacturers.
The website for the programme – covidtests.gov
Ms Dawn O’Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the money will fund the purchase of 200 million tests to replenish the nation’s stockpile as tests are sent out.
A by-product of the programme, Ms O’Connell said, is that it will shore up domestic manufacturing capacity in the event of another serious coronavirus surge.
If there is a spike in demand, she said, the department has given the manufacturers permission to sell the tests directly to retailers before the government.
Covid-19 hospitalisations have been on the rise in the United States, although they remain low compared with earlier stretches of the pandemic, and free tests are now harder to come by for many Americans.
While private insurers had previously been required to cover up to eight at-home tests a month, that requirement stopped when the Biden administration ended the public health emergency for the coronavirus in May.
The administration first began offering free at-home Covid-19 tests through the postal service in early 2022 after the Omicron variant caused cases to soar.
More than 600 million tests were distributed before officials halted the programme late that summer, citing a lack of funding. The administration resumed offering tests late last year before halting the programme again this spring.
Wednesday’s announcement came as President Joe Biden’s health secretary, Mr Xavier Becerra, tried to drum up interest in the newly approved coronavirus vaccines
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommended last week that all Americans six months and older receive at least one dose of the reformulated Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
With the chief executives of Pfizer and Moderna standing beside him, Mr Becerra invoked his own mother, who is about to turn 90 and, he said, has not had Covid-19.
“I feel comfortable, having gotten the shots, that I could hug and kiss my mother and not be responsible for getting her sick,” he said.
“No one is safe until everyone is safe,” he added. NYTIMES
