As of Tuesday this week, every home in the United States is eligible to receive up to four fee at-home Covid-19 tests. Orders ship out in 7-12 days. Any household that requests a kit can have one.
While the omicron variant of Covid-19 continues to spread and overwhelm hospitals, the federal government is planning to ship out as many as 500 million kits or more. You can order your kit at www.covidtests.gov.
Additional measures being put in place include setting up over 20,000 testing sites, many of which have already opened before Christmas of last year and will be distributing over 400 million free N95 masks by next week to pharmacies and community centers nationwide. Any individual can receive up to three masks per person. Available for pickup starting next week, the mask delivery program is expected to be fully operational by February.
As many as one-third of Americans do not wear any masks currently. The cost of acquiring masks has also been a hindrance. Since the CDC announced that using N95 masks would be better than cloth masks or the disposable blue and white masks frequently seen in public places, to provide better protection, the federal government has taken action to provide these masks to the public. The White House has also faced surmounting pressure to provide more protective masks available to the public rather than the less protective cloth versions.
Both the deployment of the new N95 masks and free Covid-19 tests are welcomed by many, though the President and administration has faced criticism for the delay in providing these supplies. The White House said that these measures are the “largest deployment of protective equipment in U.S. history."
Other countries have been far ahead in terms of testing and masking. In Britain, tests were available by April 2021. Taking a test before “attending a wedding, sports event or private dinner party became the norm for many people,” as reporter Claire Parker pointed out in The Washington Post.
The N95 masks come from the U.S.'s Strategic National Stockpile, which has tripled its supply of N95 masks to 750 million in the year since President Biden took office. Given the omicron variant’s ability to dodge vaccines so far, the federal government has invested in sending out free N95 masks and free Covid-19 tests, while also setting up free testing centers and free vaccination centers.
Last year, the Biden administration distributed 30 million masks to food banks and community health centers and sent out 23.5 million masks and respirators to individual states. President Biden also required masks be worn in federal buildings, airplanes and trains on his first day of office. He has urged Americans to continue wearing masks in all public indoors settings. Former President Trump has also spoken about the importance of getting vaccinated.
The United States federal government has invested significantly and in a massive quantities to fight the pandemic through the creation and distribution of vaccines through Vaccine initiative Operation Warp Speed that has protected both Americans and the world at large through the production of EULA vaccines that are provided free of charge to Americans. In addition, Americans have had more choice in terms of vaccine such as Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson as compared to countries with socialized medicine where they were given only one option, the AstraZeneca vaccine that was linked to blood clots.
After facing criticism for only offering one type of vaccine, Britain now has expanded to offer a total of four vaccines — existing AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen. A large percentage of Brits are vaccinated now, as reported by the BBC.
Despite the convenience of getting vaccines, many Americans remain undecided or have chosen to not get a vaccine at this time. Data provided by surveys conducted by Morning Consult in January of this year shows that the U.S. has a lower vaccination rate than any other country tracked apart from Russia.
Currently, the United States has 2/3 of the population vaccinated at 63.4% or 209 million Americans. 509 vaccination doses have been given as of mid January 2022.
