The Biden administration plans to distribute millions of free Covid-19 tests to schools around the US in a further effort to keep classrooms open in the face of the latest wave of coronavirus infections led by the Omicron variant.
The federal government plans to send 5m free rapid tests and provide a further 5m lab-based tests to schools each month, Jeff Zients, the White House’s coronavirus task force co-ordinator, said on Tuesday.
The Biden administration had previously earmarked $10bn of funding for testing in schools as part of the $130bn Covid-19 rescue plan that was signed into law last year. The tests for schools will be in addition to the 500m rapid at-home tests the federal government plans to begin sending to US residents in coming weeks, although concerns have been raised about potential shortages.
Over the past week, the US has averaged 751,000 new Covid-19 infections a day, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease and Prevention, said during Tuesday’s briefing. That is a record level and represented a 47 per cent increase over the previous…
