As Omicron cases surge, 60M households ordered free Covid rapid tests, says White House

The White House on Friday said that nearly 60 million US households have ordered the free, rapid Covid tests. While speaking to the reporters, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that “tens of millions of tests have gone out the door." 

However, she did not provide an exact figure of the households that have already received the tests.

As per local media reports, each household is allotted four free Covid tests from the Biden administration. This means that 240 million tests have been ordered through COVIDTests.gov.

The test website was officially launched on January 19.

Two days laters, the White House launched a phone line. This was launched for people who cannot easily access the internet. 

Also read | US: Omicron leads to a higher death toll than fall's Delta wave

Meanwhile, a recent report revealed that the Omicron variant which is driving a new wave of cases in the US, is causing a higher daily American death toll than the previous Delta variant. Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California said, "Omicron will push us over a million deaths."

As per the AP-NORC poll which was revealed this week, most Americans have started taking precautionary measures against the virus than before the omicron surge. 

Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California said, "Omicron will push us over a million deaths."

“That will cause a lot of soul searching. There will be a lot of discussion about what we could have done differently, how many of the deaths were preventable," he further added. 

(With inputs from agencies)