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Joe Biden Administration To Invest $1 Billion For At-Home Covid 19 Testing

In the bid to contain the spread of the pandemic and ongoing shortages, the White House in the United States of America announced an investment of worth $1 billion for rapid and at-home Covid 19 testing.

US Expects To Have A Supply Of 200 Million Rapid Tests Per Month

Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator spoke a press briefing on Wednesday. He said that the investment of $1 billion will quadruple the number of tests available to the Americans by December. He said that with the investment, they will have a supply of 200 million rapids, at-home tests per month, starting from December. Currently, they have a supply of tens of millions of additional tests coming in the market within the next couple of weeks.

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This further follows the authorization of the sale of a new Covid 19 test by the US-based Acon Laboratories. They received approval from the Food and Drug Administration on Monday. This further accelerates the pace of testing and the authorities will be able to track the number at a much speedier pace by early November.

Biden Administration Increases Access To Free Testing 

Furthermore, the Joe Biden administration will also be increasing access to free testing. This has been central to the country’s Covid response. In early September this year, Biden announced his commitment to expand the number of pharmacies that are included in the government’s free testing programme.

He announced that the programme will add around 10,000 local pharmacies across the country. And has now been doubled to 20,000 local pharmacies. Along with that, around 10,000 other community based free testing sites are also available in the country.
Meanwhile, the public health experts are of the opinion that the supply of 200 million at home tests per month was long overdue.