United States to distribute 500 million free at-home COVID-19 tests

The United States federal government will be mailing out at home Covid test kits for free for any U.S. household that requests one. 

The White House will be shipping out over 500 million test kits in light of the spike in cases due to the omicron variant. Government officials have not specified the number of tests a household can receive (NBC News).

Moving forward, President Joe Biden will be speaking Tuesday on how his administration plans on handling the pandemic this winter. Despite testing being one of the tougher challenges this administration has faced, new testing sites will be set up nationwide. Currently, over 20,000 are already operational. The first new testing center will be opening up before Christmas in New York City.

Biden will also be discussing the 1,000 members of the military that will be helping hospitals with staffing. He will be deploying the Federal Emergency Management Agency for overflow hospitals. The Defense Department will be sending out medical personnel to assist hospitals as needed starting within the next month.

A senior administration official said, “Because omicron spreads easily, we will see fully vaccinated people get Covid-19. But vaccinated people who get Covid will likely have no symptoms or mild symptoms. Because of that strong protection, the president will tell the American people if they are vaccinated and follow the process that we all know well, especially masking while traveling, they should feel comfortable celebrating  Christmas and holidays.”