Free COVID test kits are coming back. Here's how to get them.
"Four free tests will be available for each household to request through the government's COVIDTests.gov portal beginning on Monday, Sept. 25."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/free-covid-tests-how-to-order-online/Open linkView original on sh.itjust.works
22 replies
Might be worth saying what country this is for. In Canada, they never went away.
Not to go all Ameri-centric, but American news organization (CBS) and American government site (.gov).
I think it would be a good policy to always mention the country in the title (or tag it or wharever). Though yeah, not a mystery which one they're talking about here lol
Your approach to unambiguous and clear information dissemination is intriguing.
4 whole tests to last for months, potentially years. I wish for once the US didnt half ass literally anything positive.
Yeah, In Canada you can just grab a free box of 5 whenever you want. And when I had Covid I went through 14 tests before I started showing negative.
The US is ass backwards on this one.
For the better part of a year or two the Fed was requiring insurance companies to reimburse people for tests they bought, up to 8 a month. It was a pain in the ass, but my wife and I were testing weekly for free back in late 2021.
Why were you testing weekly? Had a flu for a while?
Covid is often asymptomatic but can still spread to others.
I also discovered you can report at home tests at https://learn.makemytestcount.org/.
That's awesome! We need more monitoring. It's the only way we'll know what is actually going on. There's a lot to be said for testing sewage effluent, and not every state can afford that.
Some old tests are still considered good. Check this list to see if any of your old tests are still good.
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list
I hope they don’t give out expired tests again. The last batch of tests I received early this year were all expired.
Most tests had their expiration dates extended.
Only time I got them, it took two weeks to arrive (making it useless to test if you think you had symptoms), and expired in a month (making it almost useless to keep on hand 'just in case').
For the specific use case of going on a pre-planned trip and making sure you're healthy just before leaving? Great. But that's now how the program was presented to the end users.
What? Ever since they were widely available and free, the idea is to keep a supply of them at the ready so you can test any time you're feeling symptomatic.
Do these things go bad? I got some a while ago but I've never tested for COVID
Yes. They should have expiration dates on them. I think they’re good for roughly a year or two.
As the other comment said, yes they have expiration dates. However many have been extended so check before throwing them out. Some that I got around the time the program first started (I think) aren't due to expire until next March, so yours may very well still be good depending when you got them.
Looks like my package volume is about to skyrocket again
You lot still dealing with COVID?
E: apologies if my simple question offends.
Though of course not as scary anymore and not in the news as much, it's still around. Not that many people care where I live, I think most are "over it"