In August, the federal government pumped the brakes its “free COVID test kit by mail” service, probably the most common applications to come back out of the pandemic, over fears that the American public would deplete the nationwide stockpile of assessments earlier than the onset of winter. On Thursday, the White House introduced that it has restarted this system in cooperation with the US Postal Service, although households will solely obtain half as many assessments as earlier than — 4 particular person speedy antigen COVID-19 assessments per family. We stay within the single wealthiest nation within the historical past of the Earth.
When this system was initially paused, 600 million at-home assessments had already been despatched to American households and, given the speed of distribution, the federal authorities would have wanted to return to Congress for extra funding to buy extra assessments. In September, the White House did simply that, asking for $22.4 billion in additional funding to battle COVID — amid delicate Summer and Fall COVID seasons, Congress did nothing. The White House then pared down its ask to $10 billion in a supplemental funding request in November. Facing strident opposition from Republicans on the problem, Congress continues to dither.
COVID circumstances reached their lowest in mid-October with simply 261,268 reported nationwide. That quantity has doubled previously two months, per the CDC. Amid what’s suspected often is the newest wave of the pandemic, the White House has determined that the scenario is dire sufficient to warrant dipping again into the nationwide check stockpile as a part of its Winter Preparedness Plan. You can order yours by the US Postal Service page here. Orders will start transport free the week of December nineteenth, 2022.
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