Omicron Variant Infection Cases Soar, President Biden Orders Addition Of 500 Million Free COVID-19 Test Kits

Illustration of the COVID-19 rapid antigen test kit. (Wikimedia Commons/dronepicr)

JAKARTA - United States (US) President Joe Biden said on Thursday he directed the US Government to conduct an additional 500 million COVID-19 tests, to help meet demand amid the outbreak of the Omicron variant in the country.

The order comes on top of another 500 million tests the White House promised before the Christmas holidays to be available to Americans this month.

"Today I directed my team to get an additional 500 million more tests to distribute for free," President Biden said ahead of a briefing from advisers.

President Biden has come under fire for not focusing more on testing earlier, as part of his strategy to fight the pandemic. A nationwide shortage of tests has disrupted the response in recent weeks, during which the highly contagious variant of Omicron has spread.

A White House official said earlier on Thursday the tests would be free for US consumers, with the White House to share more details about their distribution at a later date. Details on the website that will have information on the first phase of the 500 million tests will be available on Friday, the official said.

When the original 500 million tests were announced, experts said the White House's actions were too slow and not bold enough to tackle the Omicron deployment. Since then, the Department of Defense has signed contracts with two procurement companies, Revival Health, and Goldbelt Security, to provide them.

Tests are hard to find for many Americans, driven in part by a shortage of rapid test supplies and staff shortages at emergency care centers, pop-up sites, and pharmacies that administer tests.

Recently, staff at laboratories that process more complex PCR tests have also been a factor, frustrating many people who want to know quickly whether they have COVID-19.

President Biden himself acknowledged Americans' frustration, but said testing availability had increased.

"This month it is estimated that we will reach around 15 million tests a day and we will have more than 375 million rapid tests at home in January alone. That's a big jump."

President Biden said the government was on track to launch a website next week, where people would be able to order free tests to have them delivered to their homes. He also said the government would announce next week how to make masks available to Americans for free.

To note, while the official number of cases of the Omicron variant in the United States continues to rise, there are signs that in some areas affected first, such as the Northeast, the rate of new infections is starting to slow.