Free COVID Tests Are Back for Fall 2024—Here’s How to Get Yours

Americans can now order another round of free COVID-19 tests from the U.S. government.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) reopened COVIDTests.gov, a website that allows each U.S. household to order four free COVID tests.

Earlier this week, the agency said COVID tests would become available at the "end of September." In addition to ordering on COVIDTests.gov, Americans can also order their free tests on the U.S. Postal Service’s website.

Since its inception in January 2022, the government program has distributed more than 900 million tests to Americans.

The free tests are able to detect all current COVID variants and can be used through the end of 2024—a potentially helpful strategy as the virus is currently circulating at high levels across the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The news also comes on the heels of a new COVID variant called XEC that is spreading in Europe and has been detected in the U.S. Though it hasn’t yet shown up in variant surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), experts speculate that it could spread more easily and may become the predominant variant in the U.S. over the coming months.

How to Order Your Free COVID Tests

Each U.S. household is now able to order four free COVID tests from COVIDTests.gov as of September 26.

Households may also acquire tests by visiting the USPS website, which shared that each household will be able to order “standard and more accessible COVID-19 tests...while supplies last.”

To order, the website requires one person from each household to share their first name, last name, email address, and shipping address. Orders will ship for free beginning on September 30, according to the website.

People can also contact HRSA health centers, Test to Treat sites, or ICATT locations for more information on whether they might be eligible for low- or no-cost COVID tests in addition to those they might receive through the free COVID test program.

How to Use Your Free COVID Tests

The free COVID tests provided by the U.S. government are FDA-authorized at-home diagnostic tests and typically provide results within 30 minutes or less, according to the ASPR.

These at-home tests are also known as rapid antigen tests. Depending on the type of test you receive, the test kit will include multiple parts and often requires swabbing one or both nostrils. The CDC urges anyone using an at-home test to thoroughly read the package inserts and follow the instructions closely.

The ordering website noted that some tests might have expired dates, but that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended those dates. For more information on extended expiration dates, check out the FDA's website.

Positive results from an at-home test are accurate and reliable, but a negative test cannot entirely rule out infection, according to the CDC. In this case, the agency recommends having two to three negative antigen tests to rule out a COVID infection.

Reporting your test results—positive or negative—can also be helpful in tracking the virus’s spread throughout the U.S. The ASPR urges people to report any test results to public health agencies at MakeMyTestCount.org.