Nearly half of Biden’s 500M free COVID tests still unclaimed

Washington, Feb 27 (BUS): Nearly half of the 500 million free Covid-19 tests the Biden administration recently made available to the public have yet to be made public, as cases of the virus have fallen and people feel less need to get tested.

Unbridled fluctuations in demand have been a subplot in the pandemic, from vaccines to hand sanitizer, along with testing, the AP reports.

On the first day of the White House test donation in January, COVIDtests.gov received more than 45 million requests.

Officials now say that fewer than 100,000 requests a day are coming in for packages of four free rapid tests per household, which are provided by the US Postal Service.

However, the White House sees the program as a step toward a deeper, more resilient testing infrastructure that will accommodate sharp increases in demand and remain on standby when cases dwindle.

“We fully intend to maintain this market,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, testing advisor to the COVID-19 response team. “We know the market is volatile and it will come up and down with spikes in the variables.”

The White House says Americans have placed 68 million orders for test packages, leaving about 46% of the test stockpile available to be ordered.

Testing will become more important with mask requirements now relaxed, some independent experts say. “If infection control remains our top priority, testing is key,” said Dr. Lena Winn, a former Baltimore health commissioner and commentator on the pandemic.

“Four tests per household for one family will only run once. There should be enough tests for families to test twice a week.”

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