Government resumes free COVID-19 testing program
Americans can once again order free COVID-19 tests to be sent to their homes.
NEW YORK – Americans can once again order free COVID-19 tests to be sent to their homes.
GO TO: Ordering process m VACCINE UPDATE m XEC VARIANT
With the resumption of the federal program, up to four nasal swab tests will be available to U.S. households starting this month.
According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the tests can detect current virus strains and can be ordered before the holiday season.
Here’s what you need to know, including how to order, an update on the COVID-19 vaccine, and information about the XEC variant.
The US health authority responsible for the program has not yet given an exact date when ordering can begin – it is expected to be “the end of September”.
Once the tests are available, U.S. households will be able to order four free COVID-19 tests from COVIDTests.gov, the HHS said.
“The COVID-19 tests detect current COVID-19 variants and can be used until the end of the year,” the agency explains on its website.
COVID home tests can be done at home or other locations and typically provide results in 30 minutes or less.
Last month, U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine designed to combat the latest strains of the virus — and hopefully the coming winter strains as well.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends vaccination this fall for everyone aged 6 months and older.
While most Americans have some level of immunity from previous infection or vaccination or both, that protection is waning. Last fall’s vaccinations targeted a different part of the coronavirus family tree, a strain that is no longer circulating.
Meanwhile, health experts and scientists around the world are sharing information about what they believe will be the next dominant COVID variant, called XEC. Experts say it belongs to the same family as the omicron variant, but appears to be becoming more contagious as it has spread in recent weeks.
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XEC is the proposed name of a hybrid variant of the omicron lines KS.1.1 and KP.3.3, a CDC spokesperson told FOX Television Stations.
The spokesperson said the CDC is monitoring the emergence of variants in the U.S. population, but since specific cases are not linked to specific variants, there is no data on how many cases of the XEC strain have been recorded in the U.S. so far.
Last month, Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California, told the Los Angeles Times that XEC is just beginning to take off worldwide and in the United States.
“It will take many weeks, a few months, before it really takes hold and makes waves,” he said.
Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst at FOX News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, said he also expects XEC to be available in the U.S. soon.
“It seems to be more contagious – it causes constipation, cough, loss of smell and appetite, sore throat and aching limbs,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The new vaccine should provide at least some protection,” he added.
Kelly Hayes of the FOX TV Digital Team contributed to this report.
