Nearly half of Biden admin’s 500 million free Covid tests for public remain unclaimed in US

With the fall in the number of new cases of coronavirus in the US, nearly half of the 500 million free Covid tests made available to the public recently by the Biden administration remain unclaimed.  

As the situation of the virus is easing, it seems people feel less urgency to go for the test.  

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In the pandemic, wild demand swings have been witnessed, many a time. It has happened with vaccines, hand sanitiser and tests.  

COVIDtests.Gov had received over 45 million orders on the first day of the White House test giveaway in January. Now, the officials say that less than 100,000 orders a day are being witnessed for the packages of four free rapid tests per household, which are being delivered by the US Postal Service.  

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The White House views the programme as a step towards a deeper testing infrastructure, which will accommodate the demand surges and remain on standby when cases wane.   

"We totally intend to sustain this market. We know the market is volatile and will come up and down with surges in variants," Dr Tom Inglesby, testing adviser to the COVID-19 response team, told The Associated Press.   

(With inputs from agencies)