Even though the COVID pandemic is no longer considered a health emergency, it’s obvious that the virus still exists. With all the medical ways to overcome it, the coronavirus can still infect people, and cases of illnesses are still being reported.
It’s only logical that efforts from the governments are still needed to some degree to make sure that the populations have all they need in case of a hypothetical battle with COVID.
The federal government offers new COVID tests for free
According to NBC News, each household in the US now has the chance to order four more COVID tests, which will be given for free by the federal government. The shipping will begin in less than a week.
People have the chance to place their orders online at Covid.gov, and all the information they need to provide is a name and a home address. Not even information regarding health insurance is needed.
Given that the holiday season is approaching, public health experts expect that during such a period, more cases of illness because of various respiratory problems, including COVID, will be reported.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, who’s an infectious disease physician and also a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, explained, as NBC News quotes:
There is a benefit to testing in order to get antiviral therapy if you’re somebody that’s high-risk,
The other way people use it is ‘I’m going to be around a lot of high-risk people, and I just want to make sure I’m not contagious.’
However, Dr. Adalja emphasizes that there’s no need for testing with the same rigor as people needed to do during the worst periods of the COVID pandemic. Instead, those who are part of vulnerable groups should be the ones concerned the most, such as the immunocompromised and those who are at least 50 years old.
