Free Covid-19 Tests Kits Available Again Online
Starting today, the U.S. government is making Covid-19 test kits available, free of charge, to those who order them online.
The Department of Health and Human Services says the government is making the tests available again ahead of the holiday season, which starts with Thanksgiving this week and ends with New Year’s celebrations.
Households that had ordered four free tests through COVIDTests.gov when they were offered again in September, are eligible to order four more. Those who did not order tests in September, are eligible to submit two orders for a total of eight free tests. The U.S. Postal Service will deliver them to your home free of charge starting the week of November 27, 2023.
Expiration Dates Have Been Extended
- Tests may show expired dates on the box, but the FDA has extended those dates. Check COVIDTests.gov to see the full list of kits and expiration dates.
The tests are being paid for using COVID-19 supplemental funding from the American Rescue Plan. Over 1.6 billion free tests have been distributed to date since the pandemic began.
As of November 11, Covid-19 hospital admissions had climbed to over 16,000 across the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although numbers are up this week, there were 24,000 hospitalized at the same time last year.
The government will continue to make COVID-19 tests available to uninsured individuals and underserved communities through existing outreach programs. Contact an HRSA-funding health center or Increasing Community Access to Testing (ICATT) location near you to learn how to get low-or-no cost COVID-19 tests provided by the federal government.
The Tests Available for Order:
- Can be taken at home or other locations. Give results within 30 minutes
- Can be used for testing whether you have COVID-19 symptoms or not
- Can be used for testing whether you are up to date on your COVID-19 vaccines or not.
- Are rapid antigen at-home tests, not PCR (Polymerase chain reaction)
Take an at-home COVID-19 test:
- If you start having COVID-19 symptoms like fever, sore throat, runny nose, or loss of taste or small
- At least 5 days after you come into close contact with someone with COVID-19, or
- When you’re going to gather with a group of people, especially those who are at risk of severe disease
