Free COVID tests are back. Here's how to order
www.seattletimes.com
Free at-home COVID-19 tests can now be ordered online, and they will be delivered at no cost by the U.S. Postal Service.

Starting Monday, [people in the US] can once again order free at-home COVID-19 tests to be delivered straight to their homes.

The Biden administration announced last week that it is providing $600 million in funding to produce the new tests and restarting a website allowing Americans to order up to four tests per household.

Orders can be placed at COVIDTests.gov, and the no-cost tests will be delivered for free by the United States Postal Service starting Oct. 2, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

  • Captain Poofter@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    Does anyone know anything if these tests have been updated in any way since the onset of covid? I read a couple mutation strands in that they were less effective as they mutated, but if that is true I imagine we’re quite a number of strands down the line now, and am curious about the tests and how they work

    • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      8·
      9 months ago

      The short answer is yes, these home tests are still effective:

      But ultimately, the tests are still capable of picking up infections, said Todd Merchak, who co-leads the RADx program at the National Institutes of Health. The program, whose name is short for “rapid acceleration of diagnostics,” was created during the pandemic to quickly develop tests for the coronavirus.

      “To date, the performance of currently marketed COVID-19 tests has not been adversely impacted by any new variants,” Merchak said in a statement.

      The reason is because:

      Most rapid tests, on the other hand, target the nucleocapsid proteins, or N-protein, of the coronavirus. N-proteins don’t change as much as spike proteins do.

      https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/18/health/covid-19-home-tests-still-work-wellness/index.html