Political | Process

Orders will be limited to four tests per residential address, will ship within 2 – 3 weeks after ordering, the White House says.

Tweet

• The Biden Administration is Buying 500 million Tests to Give to Americans for Free; Online Ordering of a Half-Billion Tests Begins on January 19th; Builds on Significant Actions to Expand Testing Capacity and Increase Access to Free Testing

• The administration expects that timeline to shorten as the program ramps up, one of the officials said.

• People will be able to order the tests on a new website, COVIDTests.gov, which will go live on Jan. 19. The White House is partnering with the U.S. Postal Service to ship the tests to people’s homes.

• The move comes as the White House has been under pressure from lawmakers and from health experts to take stronger action to address shortages of tests across the country.

• Many health experts say the administration should have made testing moves like this months ago, before the omicron wave hit.

• The limitation of four tests per address will mean this channel alone will be far from enough to allow for the kind of frequent testing that many experts have called for.

• Asked about the limitation, a senior administration official said the initiative is “one of many programs we are executing” on testing. Other avenues include allowing people to get reimbursed by private health insurers for tests they buy at a retailer.

SOURCE: WH PRESS BRIEFING