WASHINGTON — More than 67,000,000 requests have been received by the Biden administration for free at-home Covid tests via a government site that was launched last month. 50 million of those orders were shipped, according to a White House official.
This is an increase from the 60,000,000 orders that the federal government claimed it had received at the end of January. Jeffrey Zients, White House Covid coordinator, stated Wednesday that about 10 million households requested tests last month but have not received them. However, those orders should be delivered within the next few days.
Officials stated that the testing would usually be shipped within 7 to 12 days of a household placing an order on the site when it launched. Zients stated that the U.S. The U.S. Postal Service distributed the tests quickly, with 60% of them arriving within 24 hours and 90% reaching their destination within 48 hours.
Zients stated that each order contained four Covid tests and the U.S. has delivered 200 million Covid tests free of charge in less than a month. He said that the U.S. has agreements in place for 800 million additional tests or is in the process of doing so.
In December, Biden announced that the federal government would begin mailing 500 million at home Covid test kits free of charge to all U.S. households that request one due to an increase in infections caused by the omicron variant. Biden announced in January that he would increase the number of federal tests ordered to 1 billion.
The administration faced many challenges when testing was first introduced. There were long waiting lists at testing centers, and quick tests sold out quickly to retailers. Although Covid cases have declined significantly in the years since, officials from the administration say that they will continue to push for strengthening the nation’s testing infrastructure to prevent another outbreak.
Tom Inglesby recently took over the White House’s testing activities. He said Wednesday that the federal government had issued a formal request to the testing industry for information. The goal was to find ways to manage market volatility and address supply chain challenges. It also wanted to scale up manufacturing and improve the technology.
Some manufacturers cut back on testing production last year when the demand dropped and cases dropped. This made it difficult for the U.S.A to increase capacity during the omicron surge.
