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May 17 (UPI) -- The White House announced on Tuesday that a third round of home COVID-19 tests are being made available to the American public, and urged people to continue testing and taking precautions to avoid spreading the virus. Officials said that people can order the new round of tests at the federal website, COVIDtests.gov.
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For the new round of availability, American homes will receive eight more home COVID-19 tests. For the first two rounds of distribution -- in January and March -- each home was eligible to receive four.
President Joe Biden's administration is making the additional tests ready to avert new and unnecessary surges of the coronavirus.
"As the highly transmissible subvariants of Omicron drive a rise in cases in parts of the country, free and accessible tests will help slow the spread of the virus," the White House said in a statement.
In January, Biden committed to making one billion home tests available at no cost to U.S. households.
"To date, the administration has delivered approximately 350 million free tests to mailboxes and doorsteps across the country, in U.S. territories, and at overseas military bases, with most tests delivered by the U.S. Postal Service within 48 hours of shipping," the White House noted.
Officials said the new round of tests is part of the president's National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan to move against the virus and provide treatment.
Biden has recently warned against becoming complacent or "numb" to the coronavirus outbreak, which is still officially classified as a pandemic.
"This pandemic isn't over," Biden said at the second global COVID-19 summit last week.
"We're at a new stage in fighting this pandemic, facing an evolving set of challenges. We have to double down on our efforts to get shots in people's arms, country by country, community by community and ensure we have a reliable supply of vaccines and boosters for everyone, everywhere."
