The White House announced Wednesday that it is making an investment of $1 billion towards making more of the sought-after at-home quick COVID-19 tests available for purchase.
As a result of this purchase with that investment, the White House expects that 200 million rapid tests will be offered to purchase every month until December.
"To sum up, we are in the process of quadrupling the number of tests that are rapid accessible to Americans before the end of December" Jeffrey Zients, the COVID-19 coordinator at the White House, spoke at a news conference. The Biden administration is also planning to increase significantly the government's free drug testing program to 30,000 locations.
"Together the actions we're adopting will ensure that every American regardless of income or ZIP code, will have access to reliable cheap, efficient and cost-effective test results," Zients said.
Although the Biden administration announced the investment of $2 billion in March to put these tests in community health centers as well as food banks and schools, and to provide them at a variety of retailers for free, the demand is outstripping supply. It is believed that the White House expects the price of these tests, which are approximately $10 right now in the present, to fall as demand increases.
A significant portion of that demand comes from businesses conducting tests on employees who are not vaccinated on a regularly.
"Employer demand has become a raging," Doug Bryant, the chief executive officer of the test maker Quidel said to Reuters earlier this week prior to Wednesday's announcement. "We aren't capable of meeting all the demands we're receiving."
While the tests for rapidity aren't as precise as PCR tests, they're more readily available in their accessibility and the experts claim,they will help detect people who are highly contagious with high levels of viral load. In the event of a crisis experts in health recommend that you use them before gathering in a high-risk area to prevent spreading the illness to other people.
The shelf life of tests typically ranges from 6 months to 1 year.
