Every family in the US will be entitled to free Covid tests again from next WEEK as part of $600million project to prevent winter wave

The Biden administration will once again offer free at-home Covid tests to all US households starting next week.

The program, which will cost $600 million, will be aimed at combating a winter surge of Covid cases, which are on the rise amid the Eris and BA.2.86 variants.  

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra said: ‘We will once again begin our program to provide Americans with an opportunity to request tests.’

Starting September 25 and lasting through the end of the year, each US household can request four rapid tests at covidtests.gov. 

To date, the Biden administration has shipped more than 755 million free Covid tests across the US. The program was previously suspended in May after the administration declared the Covid public health emergency over to preserve its supply of tests.

These tests are intended to be used for the rest of the year and will include directions on checking expiration dates, the HHS said Wednesday. Many of the tests sent out before the program ended earlier this year are likely now expired, making them less accurate. 

The administration’s funding will go to 12 manufacturers in New Jersey, California, Texas, Washington, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. 

Official data shows the rate of increase in Covid hospitalizations has also slowed, after they rose by 7.7 percent over the most recent week that data is available — marking the slowest uptick since early July when hospitalizations were at a record low. 

Latest data shows there were 20,538 Covid admissions to US hospitals in the week to September 9.

There are also signs that Covid deaths are beginning to level off.

A total of 844 were recorded in the week to August 19, the latest available. Data for the following week is incomplete, but it currently suggests 860 fatalities linked to the virus were recorded over this period — an increase of 1.8 percent.

Though updated vaccines have been rolled out, experts believe cases may surge in the winter months.

Dr Amy Kirby, head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) wastewater monitoring program, said this week: ‘Hopefully, with updated vaccinations, we will not see a big winter surge as we have in the past.’ 

‘But it’s really too early to tell.’