U.S.

Another round of free COVID-19 antigen tests available for residents

By Zoe Christen Jones

May 16, 2022 / 6:06 PM EDT / CBS News

1 million COVID-19 deaths in the United States

A third round of free at-home COVID-19 tests are now available for Americans. The free tests were first introduced as part of a Biden administration push to increase testing capacity and is now a major part of the ongoing COVID-19 strategy.

Every household in America is eligible for this third round of tests and can order them at covid.gov/tests. Each household will receive eight total rapid antigen COVID-19 tests, split into two separate shipments. The tests are completely free and will ship through the U.S Postal Service.

Residents who are unable to access the website or are having trouble placing their household's order can call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489).

Directly above view of mom squeezing the sample liquid on a test strip while carrying out a Covid-19 rapid self test for her kid at home. tangmingtung@gmail.com / Getty Images

The news comes as the United States reaches the grim milestone of 1 million lives lost to COVID-19 and the country enters a "new stage" of fighting the pandemic, President Joe Biden said.

"I continue to call on Congress here at home to take the urgent action to provide emergency COVID-19 funding that is vital to protect Americans, to make sure that we maintain our supplies of COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines, including next-generation vaccines that are being developed," Biden said Thursday at the second Global COVID Summit.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 257.9 million people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 220.6 million of those are fully vaccinated.