As the United States tries to get out of pandemic mode and start living a more normal life, it is difficult to forget that the virus continues to circulate when reaching record numbers such as one million people who have died as a result of the virus -as officially confirmed yesterday the CDC (Centers for Disease Control)

The federal government has modified the website they created for the distribution of millions of home tests to detect COVID-19 so that people who have already received their tests can reorder. This is officially the third round of tests that US residents can request at no cost to the government.

The White House today announced that U.S. residents (regardless of immigration status) can order eight COVID-19 home tests per household , to be received through the federal mail.

This program was originally launched in January of this year when President Joe Biden announced that one billion home tests for COVID-19 would be delivered free of charge so that people know if they are infected as soon as possible, avoiding spreading the virus. Of these tests, 500 million were already requested through the page www.covidtest.gov , but so far only 350 million have reached the homes of those who requested them, which include the entire continental territory of the country, the islands belonging to the United States and military bases around the world.

For those who do not have internet access, or have difficulty navigating the web, tests can be ordered over the phone by calling 1 800 232 0233.

In order to reach the promised billion, the government is promoting this third round of deliveries. In other words, if a household has already requested its tests twice, it can now order again (until now, if two orders had already been made, the third was blocked by the system).

In the previous two rounds of distribution, no matter how many people lived in the household, four home tests were given out. Now, the delivery is eight tests , for a total of 16 free tests that the government offers to send to homes since the beginning of the year.

The announcement comes amid a rise in the number of cases across the country , although they are mostly less severe cases of COVID 19 that generate fewer hospitalizations and fewer deaths. It is expected that for the fall, due to seasonal logic, there will be a new increase in the number of infections.

Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere begins in September. By that time, the Biden administration has requested an extra $22 billion from Congress to buy more vaccines and monoclonal treatments to treat coronavirus infections . Congress has not yet decided whether to approve the request.

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