The U.S. will provide free at-home Covid tests once more from late September.

• American households will receive free at-home Covid tests from the Biden administration in late September, as the virus experiences a summer surge.
• Officials announced that Americans can soon request four free COVID-19 tests through the website COVIDtests.gov.
• The tests can detect the current Covid variants, mainly derived from the highly contagious omicron variant JN.1.

The Biden administration announced that it will resume providing free at-home Covid-19 tests to American households in late September, as the virus has become more prevalent in the U.S. this summer.

Officials announced that Americans can soon request four free COVID tests through COVIDtests.gov, which will detect the current circulating variants, including most of the omicron variant JN.1 descendants.

The Biden-Harris administration has provided families with the opportunity to order over-the-counter Covid-19 tests for free for the seventh time in three years, according to Dawn O'Connell, an assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Health and Human Services Department.

Since its inception in 2021, the government's program has distributed over 1.8 billion free over-the-counter Covid tests to Americans, as stated by O'Connell.

Amid a surge in Covid cases this summer, the government is reintroducing the program in anticipation of a potential increase in cases during the fall and winter, when the virus typically spreads more easily. Nearly every state in the U.S. has reported a "high" or "very high" level of Covid in wastewater, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The government decided to reopen the program in late September due to the increase in travel and indoor gatherings among Americans.

During the holiday season, when people start traveling and gathering with loved ones, HHS wants to ensure that they have access to the four tests, according to David Boucher, director of infectious disease preparedness and response at HHS.

On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the latest round of Covid shots from Pfizer and Moderna, which target the JN.1 offshoot called KP.2, for use nationwide in pharmacies, health clinics, and other locations.

The traditional method of detecting Covid, lab PCR tests, has become more expensive and less accessible for some Americans since the U.S. government ended the public health emergency in May last year, making testing a less effective tool for protection as Covid infections climb again.

Some local health clinics and community sites provide at-home tests to the public for free.