White House Expands Access to COVID-19 Testing

On Wednesday, the White House announced that it would buy $1 billion worth of rapid, at-home coronavirus tests. According to Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, this purchase will double the supply of rapid, at-home tests available on the market each month by early November.  

The White House announcement follows a decision by the Food and Drug Administration to allow the sale of an antigen test from ACON Laboratories. The authorization of the ACON test together with the Administration’s $1 billion investment is intended to make a supply of 200 million rapid, at-home tests available each month starting in December. 

The expansion of availability of rapid at-home tests is in addition to the White House’s expansion of free testing. Zients also stated that the President will double his previous commitment to expand the number of pharmacies that provide free testing through the federal government’s pharmacy program to 20,000. Together with the 10,000 free community-based testing sites across the country, individuals will be able to access free testing from 30,000 local and community-based sites.