Free covid test kits January 19th
AIRPORT V 18 OICE, JANUARY 2022
Visit www.covidtests.gov
BY JEFF YAPALATER
The Biden Administration is
purchasing one billion at-home,
rapid COVID-19 tests to give to
Americans for free. A half-billion
tests will be available for order on
January 19th and will be mailed
directly to American households.
There will be free tests available
for every household, and to
promote broad access, the initial
program will allow four free
tests to be requested per residential
address. Starting January
19th, Americans will be able
to order their tests online at www.
COVIDTests.gov, and tests will
typically ship within 7-12 days of
ordering via The United States
Postal Service. All orders in the
continental United States will be
sent through First Class Package
Service.
In addition, Saturday January
14, the federal government is
requiring private insurances and
group health plans to cover the
cost upfront or reimburse purchases
for people within their plan.
Each covered person is eligible to
get eight kits for free every month.
For example, if there are three
people in the insurance plan, that’s
24 total kits for the month.
At the time of this report, retail
drug chains are not dispensing
kits for free nor are online
marketplaces such as Amazon
for free so there would be an upfront
cost of approximately $23
for a kit of two. These purchases
should be reimbursable through
insurance companies as the program
rolls out. However one can
go to Health & Hospitals Corp.facilities
for free and private medical
retail store fronts and receive
a free test without an upfront
charge. Depending on one’s insurance,
there may be a charge
or deductible or co-pay.
First test kits arrive
at JFK
Kits began arriving at JFK
Airport on New Year’s Day and
continued arriving from China
according to the Customs Border
Protection agency. The
new offensive fight against covid
and its variants begin the
as the first shipment of 13 million
home testing kits arrived at
JFK Airport on January via Air
China Airlines, in the pouring
rain. In alignment with President
Biden’s vow to get the variants
under control, Governor
Hochul has preemptively delivered
supplies through the NYS
Department of Health, DHS and
testing kit provider iHealth, Port
Authority Police and CBP, by
expediting these kits to the U.S
in freighter aircraft to awaiting
ground handlers such as Worldwide
Flight Services, Choice
and Asak ground handlers at
JFK Airport for transfer to trucks
for redistribution facilities. Actual
receipt of these at-home
covid testing kits began to work
their way into schools and into
the hands of consumers days
after the delivery which were
predominately sent to schools
for the first days back after the
holiday break. The public supply
began short days later but
many people were not aware
of the availability at distribution
points around Long Island and
unable to get the free kits during
the initial phase of the distribution.
However with the ongoing
supple and aggressive
plans by the federal government,
to get half a trillion kits to
the public, this should ease by
Test kits fully secured during transportation. the time you read this.
/www.COVIDTests.gov
/www.COVIDTests.gov
/www.covidtests.gov
/www.covidtests.gov
/COVIDTests.gov