Biden administration offers U.S. households more free COVID-19 tests for winter

[December 15, 2022]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. households can order four free at-home COVID-19 tests from the government website COVIDTests.gov beginning on Thursday as part of the Biden administration's efforts to tackle coronavirus infections over the winter.

The White House said it would use existing funding to pay for the tests since it has been unsuccessful so far in getting Congress to pass a bill to put more money towards the U.S. COVID-19 response.

The administration would start shipping orders of the latest round of free tests during the week of Dec. 19.

Free tests will also be made available at as many as 500 major food banks, the White House said.

Take home COVID-19 self testing kits provided by the District of Columbia government, which provides city residents four free take home tests per day, are seen in this illustration taken January 11, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Illustration

The Biden administration came under criticism a year ago for not ensuring enough tests were available in the midst of a surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths. The administration later procured hundreds of millions of tests to make available at no cost to the public.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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