FILE - In this photo illustration, free iHealth COVID-19 antigen rapid tests from the federal government sit on a U.S. Postal Service envelope after being delivered on Feb. 4, 2022, in San Anselmo, California. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/ …
null - Americans will once again be able to order free COVID-19 tests that will be mailed to their homes.
As many as four nasal swab tests will be available for U.S. households beginning this month when the federal program reopens.
The tests will detect current virus strains and can be ordered ahead of the holiday season, according to a U.S. Health and Human Services spokesperson.
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Here’s what to know:
How to order free COVID tests
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The U.S. Health and Human Services agency overseeing the program has not yet given an exact date when ordering can begin – only "at the end of September."
Once available, U.S. households will be eligible to order four free COVID-19 tests at COVIDTests.gov, the HHS said.
"The COVID-19 Tests will detect current COVID-19 variants and can be used through the end of the year," the agency states on its website.
At-home COVID tests can be taken at home or in other locations and typically provide results within 30 minutes or less.
COVID vaccine fall 2024
Last month, U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine that is designed to combat the recent virus strains – and hopefully, forthcoming winter ones.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already has recommended this fall’s shot for everyone age 6 months and older.
While most Americans have some degree of immunity from prior infections or vaccinations or both, that protection wanes. Last fall’s shots targeted a different part of the coronavirus family tree, a strain that’s no longer circulating.
COVID XEC variant, reportedly more contagious, starting to spread
Meanwhile, health experts and scientists around the world are sharing thoughts on what they believe will be the next dominant COVID variant, called XEC. Experts say it’s in the same family as the Omicron variant, but appears to be getting more contagious as it has spread in recent weeks.
XEC is the proposed name of a hybrid variant of the Omicron lineages KS.1.1 and KP.3.3, a spokesperson with CDC told FOX Television Stations.
The spokesperson said the CDC is monitoring the emergence of variants in the U.S. population, but since specific cases aren't associated with specific variants, it did not have data on how many cases of the XEC strain have been recorded so far in the U.S.
Last month, Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California, told The Los Angeles Times that XEC was just getting started now around the world and in the U.S.
"That’s going to take many weeks, a couple months, before it really takes hold and starts to cause a wave," he said.
Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for FOX News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, shared that he, too, expects XEC will soon be in the U.S.
"It seems to be more contagious — it causes congestion, cough, loss of smell and appetite, sore throat and body aches," he told Fox News Digital.
"The new vaccine should provide at least some coverage," he added.
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