The White House says there will be a website launched to order free COVID testing kits as early as next week.
On Friday, The Biden administration confirmed that the testing kits will be available to order starting next Wednesday, January 19.
Through COVIDTests.gov, people will have access to testing kits at no cost with no shipping fee charged to the order.
This comes after President recently received criticism due to low inventory and constant long lines for COVID testing in recent months. Last month, the President had announced that the county would buy up to 500 million at-home COVID kits to launch this project. However, this week he is doubling-down on his promise, announcing the U.S. will purchase 1 billion testing kits.
According to The White House, the shipping on the kits will take anywhere between 7 to 12 days through U.S. Postal Service.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says they recommend these at-home testing kits whenever someone experiences symptoms such as coughing, fever, respiratory system issues and aching in the muscle areas after potentially being exposed to COVID-19, for the better of schools and workplaces.
“Certainly if you’re going to gather with family, if you’re going to a gathering where people are immunocompromised or where they’re elderly or where you have people who might be unvaccinated or poorly protected from a vaccine that might be an opportunity you want to test,” Head of CDC Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday.
The Biden administration says there will be a limit of four tests per online order for each residential address.
The White House is expected to make an announcement sometime next week on the making of "high-quality" face masks at no cost. This, as public health officials have continuously stated that cloth masks do not have enough protection against the surging Omicron variant.
