Yahoo Finance U.S. Government Offering Twice As Many COVID Test Kits Via Mail
The U.S. government has doubled the number of COVID-19 test kits people can order for their household.
The government previously limited households to one order of four at-home rapid test kits, however, households can now order eight kits. The kits come in two packages and will be shipped free, according to the U.S. Postal Service.
People who have ordered previous test kits from the program are eligible for another round as well.
You can click here to order the kits via the USPS website.
The increased distribution comes as COVID cases in the U.S. have seen an uptick in recent weeks. The seven-day rolling average of cases on Sunday showed 150% more reported cases than in the month prior, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average was the highest recorded by the CDC in almost three months.
The number of reported COVID hospitalizations has also risen.
Last week’s seven-day rolling average of hospitalizations increased 8.3% from the previous week, according to the CDC.
COVID-related deaths tracked by the CDC have continued to drop. The CDC reported 40 deaths due to COVID on Sunday, a drop since the most recent omicron wave began at the start of the year.
The subvariant’s presence has roughly doubled in the past month among reported cases, according to CDC data.
The new omicron subvariant was reported in 42.6% of cases for the week ending May 7, the last week of data reported by the CDC.
This is compared with the subvariant’s 18.5% prevalence in cases reported for the week ending April 16.
After Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for COVID-19 in late April, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha warned Americans about the new variant.
“It is going to be hard to ensure that no one gets COVID in America,” he said.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
