As COVID-19 infections rise again this fall, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is preparing to offer free COVID-19 tests to American households. While an official launch date has not yet been announced, HHS expects that free nasal swab test kits will be available for ordering by the end of September.
This initiative comes as the country braces for the upcoming holiday season, a time when respiratory illnesses, including colds and flu, tend to increase. Households will be able to obtain four free antigen COVID-19 tests through the website COVIDtests.gov, similar to the program launched earlier in 2023. These tests are designed to detect current COVID-19 variants and can be used until the end of the year.
Current data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates a test positivity rate of 14.9%, a slight decline from the 17.8% peak recorded in August, although it remains significantly higher than the 3-4% positivity observed in May.
On Monday, the COVIDtests.gov website experienced technical issues, reportedly due to high traffic or configuration errors, making it temporarily unavailable for orders.
In 2023, the government distributed approximately 900 million COVID-19 tests through this program, highlighting its importance in monitoring and controlling the spread of the virus. Additionally, U.S. regulators recently approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine aimed at combating the KP variant strain, which is currently the most prevalent.
Individuals as young as six months are now eligible to receive the updated vaccine. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, emphasized the importance of vaccination as a key strategy for preventing COVID-19. “Given the waning immunity in the population from previous exposure to the virus and prior vaccination, we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine for better protection against currently circulating variants,” he stated in a press release.
As the nation prepares for another season of illness, access to free testing and vaccination remains crucial in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.
