Running short on test kits heading into the fall? Starting today, the US Postal Service said it will begin shipping free COVID tests to homes across the country. The new at-home tests are made possible by a $600 million investment from the White House that includes grants for 12 manufacturing companies that produce the tests.
USPS has off and on been taking orders for free COVID-19 tests since January 2022 and has previously delivered four rounds of tests, totaling 20 free tests for each household. The federal government first paused the program in September 2022 when it ran out of tests and funding, then restarted it in December 2022 and halted it again after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency in May 2023.
Read more: Your expired COVID test kits might still be good. Here’s how to find out
The new free tests from the post office come at a time when hospitalization rates related to COVID19 are rising and infection rates are expected to grow through the fall. Read on to learn how you can get free tests from USPS and other ways to get free COVID testing, treatment and vaccines.
For more, here’s what to know about long COVID, and here’s how to tell if it’s COVID, allergies or something else.
How does the USPS free COVID-19 test program work?
In January 2022, President Joe Biden announced the launch of CovidTests.gov, a website where households could order four free rapid antigen COVID-19 tests shipped by USPS. The site added four more free tests in March 2022,…
