The Biden administration is making another round of free Covid-19 tests available to the American public as part of its newly announced “Covid-19 winter preparedness plan.”
The free test program was suspended in September after the White House said it had run out of funds and Congress refused the administration’s request to provide more money. But administration officials told NPR that they shuffled money between various programs to enable the purchase of more tests for the national stockpile.
“While COVID-19 is not the disruptive force it once was, the virus continues to evolve, and cases are on the rise again as families are spending more time indoors and gathering for the holidays,” the White House said in a fact sheet released Thursday. “The Administration is encouraging Americans to use at-home COVID-19 tests when they have symptoms of COVID-19, before and after traveling for the holidays, or visiting indoors with immunocompromised or vulnerable individuals.”
Each U.S. household can order a set of four tests through the website Covid.gov. Shipping will be handled by the U.S. Postal Service, starting next week.
