Today Americans can order four free COVID-19 at-home antigen tests at COVIDtests.gov, 1 month after President Joe Biden said he was securing 500 million free tests for Americans.Last week, amid the growing surge in cases caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, Biden doubled the number of tests to be made available, to 1 billion.The tests will be sent via the US mail and should arrive within 7 to 12 days, according to the website.
Over the weekend, people with private health insurance were also able to begin submitting reimbursements for up to eight COVID-19 tests per month that are bought at pharmacies.The efforts come as cases in many Northeastern cities appear to be plateauing or decreasing after a month of record daily case counts.
In the last week, new cases have dropped by 17% in New York City, 17.6% in New Jersey, 22% in Vermont, and 25% in Washington, DC, ABC News reports.Yesterday New York state recorded 22,000 positive COVID-19 cases, which is down by about 75% from the peak of 90,000 cases less than 2 weeks ago.The state's highest case count of the pandemic was 90,132 people, on Jan 7.The United States reported 717,814 new COVID-19 cases yesterday and 1,122 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracker.
The 7-day average of new daily cases is 723,849, with 1,716 daily deaths, according to the Washington Post tracker.Hospitalizations high across USBut across much of the country hospitalizations are still soaring, overwhelming healthcare systems and staff.According to the New York Times, the average number of Americans hospitalized with the coronavirus is 157,000, an increase of 54% since the beginning of the year, and daily deaths have risen to 1,900, another 54% increase in 2 weeks.The HHS