by Admin Aug 26, 2024 The U.S. government on Friday announced that there will be free COVID-19 tests coming up next month. This was revealed at a briefing on the upcoming respiratory virus season by Dawn O’Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services. “These tests will help families and their loved ones stay safe this fall and winter season,” O’Connell said. She further said that the decision by the government to conduct the free tests next month is a result of the growing increase in the rate of people who are testing positive for COVID-19 and the introduction of highly contagious new variants which has increased the visitation to the emergency room of different hospitals around the country since late May. It has been revealed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows the wastewater viral activity level for COVID-19 is very high. Dawn O’Connell, disclosed that each household in the country has the entitlement to order four nasal swab tests when the federal program begins again in late September. “Covid-19 ttesting can help you know if you have COVID-19 so you can decide what to do next, like getting treatment to reduce your risk of severe illness and taking steps to lower your chances of spreading the virus to others,” this was released in a statement by The U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) agency. The agency added that the exact date for the testing has not yet been announced nor an exact date for ordering the test swabs. It also announced that the decision by the U.S. government to begin the COVID test came after the updated mRNA COVID vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for the fall season were approved by the government. It is expected that Novavax will get approval for its updated vaccine sometime this year. 900 million test kits have been distributed throughout American households while over 1 million Americans have died from Covid 19 since its inception in 2020.