At-home COVID-19 testing to resume in preparation for fall and winter seasons

The federal government will resume a free home COVID-19 testing program as authorities prepare for a surge in cases in the fall and winter.

Accordingly, spikes in COVID-19 is happening mainly because people will not be receiving the most recent vaccines available and newer strains of the virus are mutating and becomes more contagious. This time, nevertheless, there are fewer deaths.

According to Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center on the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, “the latest data on COVID-19 shows that the disease is starting to establish itself and has similar statistics to the flu, meaning hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths per year.”

While fewer individuals are dying, there are reports of more severe symptoms, which Dr. Robert Murphy, a professor of infectious diseases on the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, said is probably going due to a lower threshold for vaccine immunity. “Vaccines provide better immunity than getting the disease,” Murphy said in an interview. “Vaccines provide a controlled exposure that gives a stronger immune response than infection.”

Offit and Murphy continued by cautioning that certain situations require wearing a mask. “If I was in a high-risk group, like I was older or had high health risks, and I was in a large group of people that I didn’t know — like on an airplane — I think it’s prudent to wear a mask,” Murphy says. That caution also needs to apply to people who find themselves sick. “I think anyone who has a respiratory illness should stay home,” Offit says. “And if you can’t stay home, you should wear a mask. If you’re in a high-risk group, get tested — and if you have COVID-19, take an antiviral (like Paxlovid).”

Accordingly, free tests are set to return in September after the federal government’s Bridge Access Program ends. The CDC will provide $62 million to state and local departments so adults who couldn’t get tests can get them.

Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionit was said that individuals should contact public health departments before resuming the testing program.

“I would encourage people to contact their local public health departments, state health departments, but also federally qualified health centers.”

Similarly, Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for planning and response on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, urged people to get tested through the holidays, before expected family gatherings.

“Taking a rapid test is a great way for all of us to protect our friends, family and loved ones as we gather to celebrate the holidays,” O’Connell said.