The Biden administration will start giving test kits to Americans for free at no cost at covidtests.gov starting on January 19, 2022. Test kits are expected to ship in seven to 12 days, the White House said.

President Joe Biden announced earlier this week that the administration would double down on its order of 1 billion. So far COVID-19 test at home amid paucity of tests nationwide as US cases rise. Officials said the second batch of testing kits would also be distributed free of charge through the website.

The White House is ramping up efforts to make testing more accessible and affordable after facing criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over its lack of a list of COVID-19 tests, as the highly permeable Omicron version exploded nationwide, telling schools closed down, overwhelmed hospitals, and despaired. Americans are tired of the two-year-old pandemic.

Earlier this month, a group of former health advisers to Biden released a series of articles calling on the administration to change its approach to combating COVID-19 and calling on Americans to respond to the virus after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came under fire. There was an urge to learn to live together. Regarding issuing misleading guidelines on isolation.

Eight different brands of at-home rapid COVID tests are currently authorized for use by the Food & Drug Administration. The White House has officially reached a deal with the US Postal Service to distribute the 500 million tests, and also plans to order an additional 500 million tests on top of its initial order.

Americans that want free tests will need to order them. The free test kits will be limited to only four per address, the White House said, with high-risk communities and those hardest-hit by the Omicron variant prioritized for access to tests.

The president is also expected to announce next week the steps he is taking to make high-quality masks available for free, but the details of how they will be distributed are still unclear. The White House is also sending military medical teams to New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan, and New Mexico to help cope with the rise in COVID-19 cases