About 50 million Americans have received their shipments of free rapid COVID-19 tests from the federal government since mid-January, officials said Feb. 16.
"Eighty-five percent of the initial orders are now out the door. And in the next several days, we will complete the shipping of all of the initial orders," said Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 response coordinator.
Four more notes:
1. The 50 million orders that have been shipped to U.S. households include a total of 200 million individual rapid test kits, as each order includes four tests.
2. The government launched covidtest.gov Jan. 19 — the site where people can request free tests. There is a limit of one order per residential address.
3. Test orders usually ship within seven to 12 days, according to the website. Once shipped, 90 percent of packages are delivered within 48 hours, Mr. Zients said.
4. In all, the Biden administration has said it plans to distribute a total of 1 billion at-home kits to Americans' homes. The government has also begun delivering nonsurgical N95 masks to pharmacies and community health centers to bring them to the public for free. So far, about 230 million of the 400 million promised have been delivered.