U.S. To Stop Sending Free At-Home COVID Tests Due To Lack Of Funding

The federal government is ending a program that provided free at-home COVID-19 rapid tests due to a lack of funds. A message on Covidtests.gov tells visitors that ordering free tests will end on Friday (September 2) because Congress has not allocated additional money to purchase more testing kits.

It is unclear how many at-home kits at left in the national stockpile.

An unidentified official in the Biden administration told NBC News that the program can be restarted if Congress provides more funds to purchase additional testing kits.

“If Congress provides funding, we will expeditiously resume distribution of free tests through covidtests.gov,” the source said. “Until then, we believe reserving the remaining tests for distribution later this year is the best course.”

“The administration has been clear about our urgent Covid-19 response funding needs,” they added. “We have warned that congressional inaction would force unacceptable tradeoffs and harm our overall Covid-19 preparedness and response — and that the consequences would likely worsen over time.”

Since the government started offering free testing kits to every household in January, the United States Postal Service has delivered around 600 million at-home rapid tests.

While the free testing kit program is coming to an end, most Americans can still get free COVID tests at various locations. In addition, those with private insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid can be reimbursed for the cost of buying an at-home testing kit.