Following a summer time uptick of COVID-19 infections, Individuals will quickly have the ability to order free COVID-19 exams this fall.
The U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies has not but supplied an official date that the nasal swab exams might be accessible, however says kits needs to be able to order by the tip of September. The initiative is rolling out forward of the vacation season, when colds, flus and different sicknesses develop into extra widespread.
Households will have the ability to get hold of 4 free antigen COVID-19 exams by visiting COVIDtests.gov, a repeat of the 2023 program. And the division says that these exams will have the ability to “detect present COVID-19 variants and can be utilized by the tip of the yr,” in line with its web site.
The most recent knowledge from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention discovered that check positivity for COVID-19 stood at 14.9%, a lower from the 17.8% excessive reached in August, although that quantity remains to be elevated. By comparability, in Might, positivity hovered round 3-4%.
On Monday, the web site to order the exams seemed to be down as a consequence of “an excessive amount of site visitors or a configuration error.”
In 2023, 900 million COVID-10 exams went out to Individuals by this system, in line with U.S. Well being and Human Companies.
Final month, U.S. regulators accredited an up to date COVID-19 vaccine that seeks to fight the KP variant pressure, the predominant variant that has been circulating. People as younger as 6 months might be eligible to obtain the shot.
“Vaccination continues to be the cornerstone of COVID-19 prevention,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Heart for Biologics Analysis and Analysis stated in a press launch. “Given waning immunity of the inhabitants from earlier publicity to the virus and from prior vaccination, we strongly encourage those that are eligible to contemplate receiving an up to date COVID-19 vaccine to supply higher safety in opposition to at the moment circulating variants.”
