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The U. S. government will restart a program to provide Americans with home Covid-19 tests, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday.
“We will resume our program to offer Americans the opportunity to request testing,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra once said at a CVS pharmacy in Washington, where he was vaccinated against Covid-19 and the flu.
American families can apply for 4 loose tests in Covidtests. gov on September 25.
The U. S. government The U. S. Food and Drug Administration has sent more than 755 million free Covid-19 tests to others who have requested them through Covidtests. gov. The program was suspended in May, after the end of the state of health emergency due to Covid-19, to maintain the supply. .
Becerra said HHS’s management of strategic preparedness and reaction “has replenished our stockpile. “
The tests that will soon be available are ready to use until the end of 2023 and will come with commands on how to check extended expiration dates, HHS said Wednesday. The expiration dates of many Covid-19 at-home tests have extended far beyond what is posted on the packaging.
HHS and ASPR also announced $600 million for 12 U. S. Covid-19 testing brands to increase their production capacity and procure approximately two hundred million over-the-counter Covid-19 tests for the federal government. The investment will move to brands in New Jersey, California. Texas, Washington, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
“The Biden-Harris administration, in partnership with domestic manufacturers, has made wonderful strides in addressing vulnerabilities in the U. S. origin chain by reducing our reliance on overseas manufacturing,” Becerra said in a statement. “These critical investments will increase the production grades of the immediate home COVID-19 testing in our country and assistance mitigate the spread of the virus. “
Covid-19 hospitalizations have increased in the United States since July, and weekly admissions are now more than triple what they were two months ago. In the United States, more than 20,500 people were admitted to hospitals with Covid-19 in the week ending Sept. 9, according to data from the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or about 8 percent more than last week.
CNN’s Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.
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