Biden Administration to Ramp up Supply of Rapid COVID-19 Tests with Additional $1 Billion Investment
- October 08, 2021
The Biden Administration is devoting an additional $1 billion to boosting the supply of rapid COVID-19 tests, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said at a briefing on October 6.
The U.S. government has committed to buy an additional 180 million rapid tests over the next year, Zients said.
The additional funding is on top of a $2 billion investment in at-home COVID-19 tests that the administration announced in September.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier in the week authorized a new rapid, at-home test from ACON Laboratories, which Zients said “will bring tens of millions more rapid, at-home tests to the market.”
According to Zients, with the latest announcements, the federal government is on track to quadruple the available supply of at-home, rapid tests by December.