The U.S. government reopened the program in September, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government’s free at-home COVID-19 test distribution program has been suspended and is no longer accepting orders.
This comes as the globe marks five years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
“Ordering through the covidtests.gov program has been suspended,” an update posted online Sunday states. “The program is no longer accepting orders. All orders placed before 8:00 pm Eastern on March 9th, 2025 will be delivered.”
It’s not yet known whether the program has been permanently shut down or if this is only temporary. At-home testing kits are also sold at pharmacies, grocery stories and many other retailers.
Ordering on covidtests.gov has been suspended on and off throughout the COVID pandemic. However, last month, The Washington Post reported the Trump administration was evaluating the cost of ending the program and destroying tens of millions of tests.
The U.S. government under the Biden administration reopened the program in September 2024, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov.
The website had been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get an updated COVID-19 booster and their yearly flu shot.
Since COVID-19 first began its spread in 2020, U.S. taxpayers have poured billions of dollars into developing and purchasing COVID tests as well as vaccines. As of September, the Biden administration had given out 1.8 billion COVID tests, including half distributed to households by mail, according to the Associated Press. It’s unclear how many tests the government still has on hand.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
