Households across the U.S. can once again have free COVID-19 tests mailed to them by simply requesting them from the federal government.
For the third year in a row, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is sending out the tests in the hopes of tamping down COVID spread during the upcoming respiratory virus season.
Anyone who wants to order the free tests can do so at COVID.gov/tests. Each order will include four tests. They’ll be shipped out starting Sep. 30.
Los Angeles County went through a spike in COVID infections during June and July. Cases are now declining, according to local data, but health officials generally expect a spike in the spread of respiratory viruses like COVID over the fall and winter months.
It’s not clear yet how bad the winter wave will be, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They expect the peak of hospitalizations for flu, RSV and COVID to be similar to last year, but “peak hospitalizations from all respiratory viruses remain likely to be substantially higher than they were before the emergence of COVID-19,” the CDC said.