Federal COVID-19 website to stop shipping free tests due to lack of money

Aug. 29 (UPI) -- After seven months of distributing millions of at-home COVID-19 tests to Americans at no cost, President Joe Biden's administration has said it will stop offering the tests this week.

Biden created a federal website in January where people could go to order as many as four at-home coronavirus tests. He later allowed Americans to order four more in March and May.

The free tests will no longer be available beginning Friday, the White House said.

"Ordering through this program will be suspended on Friday, Sept. 2 because Congress hasn't provided additional funding to replenish the nation's stockpile of tests," the administration said in a statement on the COVID-19 test website.

When Biden ordered the first at-home tests to become available, the United States was in the midst of a serious surge in cases due to the Omicron variant that caused severe disruptions in the commercial aviation industry.

The government estimates that the website has shipped about 600 million tests since its launch on Jan. 18.

"We have warned that congressional inaction would force unacceptable trade-offs and harm our overall COVID-19 preparedness and response -- and that the consequences would likely worsen over time," a White House official told CNN.

"Unfortunately, because of the limited funding we have to work with, we have had to make impossible choices about which tools and programs to invest in -- and which ones we must downsize, pause, or end altogether."

Some Americans can still get coronavirus tested at no cost through their private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid.