The Biden administration will once again offer free COVID-19 tests to all American households, as part of its contingency plans for a possible spike in coronavirus cases this winter.
After a three-month break, the government will offer four rapid test models, available to every household in the country through covidtests.gov starting Thursday, a senior government official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to comment on the program.
COVID-19 infections have risen sharply since the Thanksgiving holiday, with travel and indoor gatherings around Christmas and New Years expected to cause further increases.
The government will reserve personnel and equipment in case they have to attend overwhelmed hospital residences, as happened in previous waves of the virus. No requests for help have been made so far, although crisis kits, respirators and personal protective equipment have been prepared, the official said.
The Biden administration also urged state and local governments to do more to encourage people to receive updated bivalent COVID-19 vaccines, which scientists say are more effective in protecting against severe illness and death from the variants that circulate now.
The government reiterated its prevention and treatment protocols for residences and long-stay centers, and urged managers and governments to encourage vaccination of vulnerable populations.
The government is having trouble convincing most Americans to get their booster shots. Infections and deaths are down from their pandemic highs, and most people have resumed their previous activities.
Funding for the new diagnostic tests has been reallocated from other virus programs, said the official, declining to say how much money would be dedicated to the project or from which programs the funds were obtained. The White House is trying to get authorization from Congress to obtain more energy financing against COVID-19.