The Biden administration is allocating 600 million COVID-19 tests to be dispersed for free across the country as hospitalizations surge.
The administration previously stopped supplying Americans with free COVID-19 tests in May, but announced it would be resuming the initiative in a press release Wednesday. The release did not provide details on whether the program restart is temporary or indefinite.
The funds will allow for approximately 200 million new COVID-19 tests to be manufactured domestically in seven different states, including Delaware, California, Maryland, Washington, New Jersey, Texas and Pennsylvania.
People will be able to order four free tests beginning Sept. 25 through COVIDTests.gov, the site the administration previously used for free tests. The new tests are intended to last until the end of 2023, the release notes. The tests will include instructions for individuals to verify expiration dates.
The announcement comes as hospitalizations peaked in early September but have since slightly lowered. The number of hospitalizations has steadily increased since July.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that hospital admissions are likely to have a stable or unpredictable trend, with approximately 1,600 to 10,000 cases likely to be reported on October 16.
Cases of COVID-19 are expected to rise in the near future as temperatures drop.
“Manufacturing COVID-19 tests in the United States strengthens our preparedness for the upcoming fall and winter seasons, reduces our reliance on other countries and provides good jobs for hard working Americans,” Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said in a press release.
Before shutting down the initiative, the government previously provided 755 million tests to more than two-thirds of American households, with 310 million being sent to people in underserved communities.
But the move to shut down and restart the program has confused some experts, especially as the federal government began distributing COVID-19 booster shots for anyone six months and up last week.
“It would have made sense to talk about the fact that with the rollout of the new booster vaccine, they were also going to be rolling out testing kits to allow people to understand their status as well,” Dr. Susan Hassig, an epidemiologist at Tulane University, said.
She added that there’s currently a limited understanding of COVID-19 because the federal government cut funding to organizations tasked with researching the virus.
Still, Hassig said, the new tests are at least an acknowledgement that U.S. residents need to have an understanding of their current status to ensure cases do not continue to spread.
“The reactivation of home distribution of tests is a good strategy to hopefully have some impact on the transmission that we know is going on,” she said.
