Why is the US having a new round of free nationwide Covid-19 test kits?

Covid-19 test at home

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that households that ordered four free Covid-19 tests through COVIDTests.gov in September will be able to register to receive four more. Households that did not receive their September shipment will be eligible to order two batches of four free tests each.

The US government is providing Covid-19 testing kits to people ahead of the holiday season, which begins with Thanksgiving on November 23 and ends after New Year’s Day in 2024. During this period, travel and indoor gatherings increase, and so does the risk of Covid-19 infection.

Weekly hospitalizations for Covid-19 rose to more than 16,000 on Nov. 11, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), up from nearly 15,000 the week before.

The Biden administration initially planned to stop the free Covid-19 test program after it was scheduled to run from January 2022 to August of the same year due to a lack of funding.

The US government resumed accepting orders from households in December 2022 amid rising infections, and a new round of orders was launched on September 25 this year.

To date, Washington has distributed more than 1.6 billion free Covid-19 tests.

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