US government to suspend mail orders for free COVID tests from today

According to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, a division of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, orders are set to close at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Associated Press

March 08, 2024 / 22:06 IST

US government to suspend mail orders for free COVID tests from today

The US government is suspending mail orders for free COVID-19 tests, at least for now.

Friday March 8 is the last day residential households can request free virus tests shipped through the United States Postal Service. According to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, a division of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, orders are set to close at 11:59 p.m. PT.

"ASPR has delivered over 1.8 billion free COVID-19 tests to the American people through COVIDTests.gov and direct distribution pathways and will continue distributing millions of tests per week to long-term care facilities, food banks, health centers, and schools," a spokesperson for ASPR said in a prepared statement sent to The Associated Press.

Mail orders for free COVID tests from the government have been paused or expanded before. Despite Friday's suspension, it's still possible for the program to resume again down the road, with ASPR noting that it reserves the right to use COVIDTest.gov in the future as needed.

The Biden administration first launched its free mail-order COVID tests back in January 2022. The program was most recently reopened in September of last year, and households have been eligible to order to latest round of tests since November.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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