Washington: To help ensure Americans have tests on hand if a need arises, the Biden Administration is purchasing one billion at-home, rapid COVID-19 tests to give to Americans for free which will be distributed from 19th January. Americans will be able to order their tests online at COVIDTests.gov, and will recieve the order within 7-12 days.
The administration’s website to process the requests, covidtests.gov, was up and running on Friday, the latest sign of its efforts to ramp up access to testing since the fast-spreading Omicron variant sent coronavirus case counts soaring.
President Biden announced on Thursday that the government would purchase an additional 500 million tests to help prepare for future surges, meaning the government will eventually make 1 billion free tests available. The senior officials said the White House has worked closely with the U.S. Postal Service to help set up the website and ensure the tests can be easy.
The website is the latest step in a slate of actions the administration has taken to boost testing amidst the surge.