CVS is limiting the number of at-home COVID-19 tests customers can purchase to six, and Walgreens has imposed a limit of four test kits per purchase, CNBC reported Dec. 21.
The limits apply to both in-store and online test kit purchases and come amid skyrocketing demand driven by a surge of COVID-19 cases nationwide.
Walgreens spokesperson Emily Hartwig-Mekstan said an "unprecedented increase in demand" for the rapid at-home tests began after Thanksgiving and has continued through the week of Christmas.
"Due to the incredible demand for at-home rapid testing, we put in effect a four-item purchase limit on at-home COVID-19 testing products in our stores and digital properties in an effort to help improve inventory while we continue to work diligently with our supplier partners to best meet customer demands," Ms. Hartwig-Mekstan told CNBC.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for CVS said the test kits may be temporarily out of stock online.
Abbott Laboratories, which makes the BinaxNow at-home test, is currently making 50 million tests per month and expects to increase that to 70 million in January, a spokesperson for the company told CNBC, adding that they are working to ship the tests as quickly as they're produced.
The Biden administration on Dec. 21 announced it is preparing to distribute 500 million free at-home COVID-19 testing kits to Americans starting in January as part of a plan to combat a surge in cases driven by the omicron variant, which has overtaken delta as the dominant strain and accounted for more than 73 percent of new cases as of Dec. 18.