President Joe Biden and his administration are making sure Americans have access to free COVID-19 tests for this upcoming winter, as fears of it spreading during the season begin to mount.
What Happened: A household can now order up to four rapid COVID-19 tests for free at CovidTests.gov, with orders beginning to ship next week.
The program was reinstated after it was previously shut down in September as Congress did not approve a budget for it.
As COVID-19 cases started to rise yet again, the White House made the decision to reallocate funding to purchase more tests and restart the well-known program, a senior administration official told CNBC.
“We feel confident that we are going to have enough tests to get through this next round, four per household, in the coming weeks,” the official said.
In addition to offering free fast COVID-19 tests, the Biden administration promised to make federal medical teams accessible to overburdened hospitals upon request from state governments and to pre-position equipment such PPEs and ventilators for distribution to states, as needed.
The government said it was also focusing on increasing vaccination rates over the winter in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
The federal government was also calling on hospitals to offer COVID-19 vaccination to patients who are unvaccinated before they are discharged.
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