Due to a decrease in hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19, the CDC recently issued an update to the COVID isolation protocol. People who test positive for COVID no longer need to isolate for five days but instead should stay home until they’ve been fever-free without medication for at least 24 hours and their symptoms have been improving for 24 hours.
In response, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also announced its free at-home COVID tests program will be suspended as of Friday, March 8, 2024.
Tests are still available for ordering now at www.covidtests.gov. Any order placed on or before Friday, March 8, 2024 will be honored.
If your household never ordered its first round of four free tests available as of September 25, 2023 or second round of four free tests available since November 20, 2023, you are eligible to receive a total of eight free at-home COVID tests through this program until March 8, 2024.
YOUR OLD TEST MIGHT NOT BE EXPIRED AFTER ALL
The Food and Drug Administration has found that the expiration dates on COVID tests stored under appropriate conditions might be extended so that the tests can still be used to produce accurate results.
For a full list of tests whose expiration dates have been extended by the FDA, click here.
