American households can now order four more free COVID tests after President Joe Biden resumed the program on Thursday amid climbing COVID cases and a testy flu season this winter. The shipments will begin next week, according to The New York Times. The program, which was halted in September for a lack of money, is using cash from “existing, limited funding” from the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that was enacted in 2021, an anonymous White House official told the Times. The program’s restarting is part of a larger “winter preparedness plan” for COVID. Cases have risen by about 55 percent during the past two weeks, deaths have risen by almost 65 percent, and hospitalizations are up 20 percent, according to the Times.
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