Topline
Households in the U.S. placed about 60 million orders for a total of 240 million at-home Covid tests through the government website launched last week, the White House said on Friday, amounting to nearly one-quarter of the 1 billion tests the Biden administration has pledged to make available for free.
Key Facts
White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters “tens of millions” of tests, which come in sets of four, have already been shipped out, and that some households have already received them.
The Biden administration has pledged to purchase 1 billion tests to make available for free to Americans, but Jean-Pierre did not specify how many the administration has on hand.
The administration launched a website on January 18 to order the tests, which ship via the United States Postal Service.
Skey Background
President Joe Biden announced an order of 500 million Covid-19 tests in December, before doubling the purchase in January, following criticism his administration had not done enough to ease testing shortages spurred from a surging number of cases due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant. The website briefly faced criticism as some residents of apartment buildings had trouble placing orders, which the USPS said stemmed from an error where some addresses were not listed as multi-residential buildings.
Tangent
The Biden administration is also working to distribute 400 million high-quality N95 masks to the public for free. Some masks are already available at local pharmacies and community health centers, with a limit of three masks per person. White House officials have said the mask program is expected to be fully operating by early February.
Surprising Fact
More than 40% of adults in the U.S. said they had ordered free Covid tests through the government website, according to an Axios/Ipsos poll released earlier this week.
Further Reading
White House Covid Test Website Launches A Day Early — Here’s How You Can Order Yours (Forbes)
White House To Order 500 Million Additional Covid-19 Tests And Plans To Make Higher-Quality Masks Available (Forbes)
400 Million Free N95 Masks: Biden Will Announce Rollout As Battle Against Omicron Steps Up (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2022/01/28/us-households-have-ordered-240-million-free-covid-19-tests-white-house-says/