Online Ordering of Free COVID-19 Tests Has Begun. What You Need to Know.
It’s always welcome when the government gives away free stuff—and that’s especially true when it’s stuff you’ve been having a hard time getting elsewhere. That’s why the deluge of clicks has already begun at COVIDTests.gov, where, as promised, Washington has begun accepting orders for free at-home COVID-19 tests for all Americans who sign on and sign up. The Biden Administration ordered the purchase of 1 billion tests, half of which can be ordered on the government site and the rest of which will be made available at pharmacies, K-12 school districts, 20,000 pop-up testing sites around the country and elsewhere. But it’s those being offered online that will roll out first and fastest. Here’s what you need to know to take advantage of the new program, according to a White House fact sheet.
Order Limits
For starters, there will be a limit on how many tests you can receive. In order to ensure adequate distribution, tests will be capped at four per household. That’s certainly better than the current, often-fruitless scramble to find tests in drug stores now, but it is fewer than the number required to be covered by private insurers under an executive order that took effect Jan. 15. Under that plan, consumers who do find and buy their own tests are entitled to have eight at-home tests per month per covered family member paid for by their insurance companies with no co-pay or deductible.
Timing
The free tests being made available online will not get to your home right away. The White House projects that it will take seven to 12 days for the tests to be shipped and arrive. Orders placed in the continental United States will be delivered as first class U.S. mail. Orders placed in Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories will be delivered by priority mail, which ships faster than first class—at closer to FedEx and UPS speed.
The Postal Service is under no illusions about the challenge it faces shipping so many tests so quickly. On a typical day, the USPS delivers from 26 million to 40 million packages, so a surge of up to 500 million threatens to overwhelm the system. To cope, staffing will temporarily be increased, much as it is during the holiday season. The cost of purchase and distribution is estimated to be $4 billion.
Ordering your test early does not necessarily mean it will arrive early. The Biden Administration is prioritizing delivery to the hardest-hit communities over ones that have lower infection rates. That means lower-income areas and communities of color will likely get their tests before wealthier—and often healthier—areas.
Call Line
For people who have difficulty accessing the Internet, the government will also be launching a call line, making it possible to phone in your order. At present, however, the phone number has not been released.
Test Brands
Which of the nine brands of tests currently on the market will be the one you receive is unclear, though the primary suppliers of the tests at this point are Abbott Rapid Dx North America, iHealth Lab Inc. and Roche Diagnostics Corp. Combined, these three companies are supplying 380 million tests.
The White House is providing guidance—much of it well-known by now—about when and why to take a test. Showing any symptoms of COVID-19 is clearly a reason to be tested. Testing should also take place within five days of coming into close contact with someone who has COVID-19 or if you are planning any indoor gatherings, especially with people who are unvaccinated.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
More than 330 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 5 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 5.5 million people have died. On Jan. 17, there were over 2.3 million new cases and 5,547 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 5 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 66 million coronavirus cases as of 5 a.m. E.T. today. More than 851,000 people have died. On Jan. 17, there were 717,723 new cases and 1,122 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Jan. 18, 12 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Hong Kong authorities plan to kill 2,000 hamsters after several of the small animals and one pet store employee tested positive for COVID-19, as TIME reports . The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that animals do not play a significant role in transmitting the virus, but Hong Kong is taking no chances. Customers who purchased hamsters from the store in question after Jan. 7 will be traced and required to quarantine, and their hamsters will be killed. “If you own a hamster, you should keep your hamsters at home, do not take them out,” one official from the Center for Health Protection said at a press conference. “Do not kiss your pets.”
The cruise industry continues to suffer as the Omicron variant spreads,reports the New York Times. On Friday and yesterday, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises respectively announced that they had delayed or canceled cruises scheduled for this winter and next spring. The industry was shuttered for the first 18 months of the pandemic and only began to reopen last summer. But last month’s announcement by the CDC urging passengers to avoid cruising proved a body blow to the sector, as did clusters of cases that broke out aboard two Royal Caribbean cruises after they left port in Florida last month.
At a virtual panel at the World Economic Forum yesterday, Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, announced that the company hopes to introduce a combined COVID-19 and flu booster shot as early as the fall of 2023, according to the Washington Post . The shot would also protect against respiratory syncytial virus. Though Bancel did not offer specifics on when or where the combined shot would be available, the goal, he said, “is to be able to have a single annual booster so that we don’t have compliance issues where people don’t want to get two to three shots a winter.”
Beijing is urging residents of the city to wear masks and gloves while opening letters and parcels from overseas, after a single case of Omicron was said to have been traced to a parcel sent from Canada that arrived in the country on Jan. 11, reports The Japan Times. Moving forward, China’s postal workers will disinfect the exterior of all packages arriving from overseas before delivery, and mail handlers must get booster shots before reporting to work. Residents of Beijing are also being urged to limit purchases and correspondence from outside of the country.
Despite the fact that it has one of the highest adult vaccination rates in the world, with more than 80% having received at least two shots, Israel can’t seem to convince parents to inoculate their children, reports the Wall Street Journal. So far, just 25% of Israeli kids between ages 5 to 11 have received as much as a single jab, despite an aggressive government vaccination campaign. Parents have accused the government of rushing to get the vaccinations approved for children; unfounded rumors are also rife that the vaccines can cause later life infertility if administered to young people.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it daily, click here.
Today's newsletter was written by Jeffrey Kluger and edited by Angela Haupt.
沒有留言:
張貼留言