The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week it will offer four free COVID at-home tests per household in late September. You’ll be able to order them from COVIDTests.gov.
That’s a savings of about $28 to $48 since tests currently cost about $7.00 to $12.50 each.
If there is more than one person in your household, though, four tests are unlikely to be enough to get you through the fall and winter when COVID is expected to surge again. Even though COVID is now endemic, testing is still important, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“COVID-19 testing can help you know if you have COVID-19 so you can decide what to do next, like getting treatment to reduce your risk of severe illness and taking steps to lower your chances of spreading the virus to others,” according to the CDC.
How can you find more free or low-cost COVID tests? Experts weigh in.
Many local and state health departments say they will be stocking free COVID home tests this year, even though the COVID public health emergency and its associated funding for free tests ended in May 2023, Adriane Casalotti, MPHChief of Government and Public Affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told Verywell.
In Washington, DC, for example, the local health department will be stocking libraries with free tests beginning on November 22. In North Carolina, the state health department is making free tests available at more than 200 locations.
Casalotti suggests contacting your local health department to ask if they have tests and where to find them. You can find information online or call 311 to ask how to contact the local health department.
Depending on how long you’ve been infected with COVID, a positive case might not register on a test right away. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends testing again two days later if you get a negative result the first time, regardless of whether or not you have symptoms.
Many of the free COVID testing sites you likely remember from the height of the pandemic have shuttered since the end of the public health emergency, but not all. Melissa Brower Dibble, a spokesperson for the CDC, told Verywell that CDC’s Increasing Community Access to Testing program (ICATT) “will continue to offer no-cost COVID-19 testing services to people without health insurance until December 31, 2024, with any program extensions announced on the ICATT website.”
Testing sites under ICATT may be community health centers, pharmacies, and some Quest Diagnostics patient service centers in underserved areas. Find a list of no-cost COVID testing sites on the COVID-19 Testing Locator website. Brower Dibble said that the types of COVID tests vary by location; you may get results within 30 minutes from rapid tests or up to 48 hours from laboratory tests.
If you have COVID symptoms or have been exposed to someone with COVID, get tested. That will help determine if you need to isolate and if you should seek treatment. You’ll be able to order free at-home tests from the government later this fall.
The information in this article is current as of the date listed, which means newer information may be available when you read this. For the most recent updates on COVID-19, visit our coronavirus news page.
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