COVID-19 home test kits will be available free of charge
Starting in late September, the federal government will ship free COVID-19 home tests through COVIDTests.gov.
Starting in late September, American households will be able to order free COVID-19 tests that detect current variants and will be available by the end of the year, authorities said.
In August, public health officials announced that the COVIDtest.gov program would be available again ahead of the COVID-19 surge that occurs in the winter. According to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the respiratory virus peaks twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter.
Since the pandemic, COVID-19 has become a widespread respiratory virus alongside influenza and RSV, with incidence peaking in the colder months of the year.
New COVID variant: COVID variant XEC is growing rapidly worldwide: What you should know about the new variant
How to order COVID-19 tests
To order the tests, visit COVIDtest.gov. Once ordered, home tests will be delivered to your home free of charge.
Each household can receive up to four free tests.
According to the CDC, the tests can detect the dominant variants in circulation, including the following subvariants:
- KP.3.1.1- 37% of COVID-19 cases in the US
- KP.3- Accounted for over 16% of all COVID-19 cases in the US
The date when the tests can be ordered has not yet been announced, but they will be available to order from the end of the month.
Current data on COVID-19 variants
According to the CDC’s latest nowcast data, which reflects the two-week period from September 1 to 14, these are the most common COVID variants:
Can’t see the table? Click here to view it.
The COVID-19 variant KP.3.1.1 is responsible for more than half of all positive infections in the United States, according to the latest projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The agency’s Nowcast data tracker, which shows COVID-19 estimates and projections for two-week periods, showed that the KP.3.1.1 variant was responsible for 52.7% of positive infections, followed by KP.2.3 with 12.2% in the two-week period from Sept. 1 to Sept. 14.
KP.3.1.1 first became the leading variant during the two-week period from July 21 to August 3.
“The KP.3.1.1 variant is very similar to other variants circulating in the United States. All current lineages are descendants of JN.1, which emerged in late 2023,” Rosa Norman, a CDC spokeswoman, previously told USA TODAY.
Previously, the KP.3.1.1 variant accounted for 40.0% of cases and KP.2.3 accounted for 14.5% in the two-week period from August 18 to August 31. According to the data, the number of predicted positive infections for KP.3.1.1 increased by 12.7% since August 31, while the number for KP.2.3 decreased by 2.3%.
Although not included in the CDC’s Nowcast data tracker, a newly discovered COVID strain called XEC continues to spread rapidly in several countries, including the United States.
Scripps Research’s Outbreak.info site, last updated on September 5, reported 95 XEC cases in 12 U.S. states and 15 different countries.
Contributors: Sabine Martin, Shelby Slade; Arizona Republic; Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY
Julia Gomez is a trend reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at LinkedInfollow her on X, formerly Twitter, Instagram And TikTok: @juliamariegz, or email her at [email protected].
Ahjané Forbes is a reporter on USA TODAY’s National Trending Team. Ahjané covers breaking news, auto recalls, crime, health, lottery and public policy. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and X (Twitter) @forbesfineest.
