Biden’s leadership announced Wednesday that it is allocating a $600 million investment to produce new COVID-19 tests at home and restart an online page that allows Americans to reorder up to four loose tests per family, in an effort to avoid a potential shortage. An increase in coronavirus cases that usually occur in the colder months.
The Department of Health and Human Services says orders can be placed in COVIDTests. gov Sept. 25 and loose tests will be delivered at no cost through the U. S. Postal Service. U. S.
Twelve brands that employ many other people in seven states, from California to Maryland, have secured investments and will produce two hundred million over-the-counter tests to fill federal stocks for government use, in addition to generating enough tests to meet the call for testing requested online. the ministry said.
The new effort aims to guard against chain-of-origin issues that have led to some shortage of home COVID testing conducted overseas beyond the surge in coronavirus cases. But it also illustrates the political balance President Joe Biden seeks to achieve as he seeks re-election. Next year between trumpeting that his tenure has led the country through the worst of the pandemic as he seeks to better prepare for the ongoing effects of a virus that persists.
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Dawn O’Connell, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said that while some of the public may be tired of the pandemic and its implications, at-home testing remains a key way to slow the spread of new cases.
“Whether other people are done or not, we know the virus is there, we know it’s circulating. We know that if the afterlife is just a prologue, it will circulate and spread to a greater degree, and cases will accumulate. “during the fall and winter seasons,” O’Connell said. “By waiting for that to go down again, or something similar, we need to make sure that other Americans have those tools.
O’Connell said the online site will continue to operate to receive orders during the holidays and “we reserve the right to keep it open even longer if we start to see an increase in cases. “
“If those tests are requested, we need to make sure they’re made to be given to other Americans in this way,” O’Connell said. “But, at this point, our goal is to get during the holidays and make sure other people can get tested if they’re going to see grandma on Thanksgiving. “
The tests are designed to detect COVID variants that are circulating lately and are expected to be in use through the end of the year, but will come with commands on how to check for expired expiration dates, the branch said.
The initiative follows four previous cycles in which the federal government and the U. S. Postal Service have not been allowed to do so. The U. S. government sent more than 755 million tests to homes across the country.
It also aims to complement ongoing federal efforts to supply COVID-free to long-term care facilities, schools, low-income senior housing, the uninsured, and underserved communities, which are already distributing four million per week and have distributed 500 million tests. to date. said the ministry.
O’Connell said brands could distribute the two hundred million tests they produce for federal use over 18 months. This means that as requests for at-home testing through the online page or in U. S. stores increase. As COVID cases rise in the country, brands can focus on fulfilling those orders, but then they will have an additional outlet for the tests they produce at a time when demand is declining.
He also said that every winter since the beginning of the pandemic, “as other people move indoors into heated spaces,” cases expand, adding that, in addition, “there is an opportunity or possibility that some other variant will come. “However, “we don’t anticipate that. “
“That’s why we’re doing this,” O’Connell said. We are doing it for the next fall and winter season and for the possibility of cases increasing. “
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said, “The Biden-Harris administration, in partnership with domestic manufacturers, has made wonderful progress in addressing vulnerabilities in the U. S. chain of origin. “We are doing the U. S. by reducing our dependence on manufacturing. “
“These critical investments will increase production levels of immediate COVID-19 home tests in our country and mitigate the spread of the virus,” Becerra said in a statement.