Free at-home COVID tests, delivered by mail, ending this week
LA TimesBoxes of iHealth COVID-19 antigen rapid test kits, provided by the state of California, are ready for parents to pick up at Tulita Elementary School in Redondo Beach on Jan. 6. Suspending the offering, which the COVID.gov website says is “because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile,” will remove one convenient testing option even as federal officials continue to tout its importance and say residents should use multiple kits to screen for coronavirus infection. California Concerns over accuracy of COVID rapid test results when first sick Health officials stress that at-home tests are a vital and accurate way of tracking COVID-19 infections but an initial negative test doesn’t mean people are out of the woods. “We went to Congress in the spring and said, ‘Look, we need resources to make sure we have plenty of vaccines and therapeutics for the fall and winter.’ Unfortunately, Congress did not come through with funding,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said during a forum with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this month. We’ve got to act.’ So we have taken money from other really important priorities, like having a stockpile of tests and having a stockpile of personal protective equipment, PPE, took those dollars and put them into buying vaccines for the fall and winter because time was running out.” The U.S. is also gearing up for the next phase of its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, which could begin as soon as next month and feature new booster shots designed specifically to combat the super-infectious BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the Omicron coronavirus family.