The Biden administration on January 12 announced a new set of measures to keep classes open, including doubling COVID-19 testing capacity in schools with 10 million more tests, as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly through the United States.
Insurance companies will be required to cover eight over-the-counter at-home coronavirus tests per person each month starting January 15, the Biden administration said, expanding access to highly sought-after kits as Americans grapple with a surge in coronavirus cases.
Britain and Israel are overhauling their COVID-19 testing policies as governments seek to reduce the burden on laboratories and struggle with tight supplies of kits amid soaring infection rates fueled by the Omicron variant.
The Biden administration is finalizing contracts for 500 million rapid COVID-19 tests that it plans to distribute for free to Americans who request them, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on January 4.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on January 4 that COVID-19 cases were rising even at the White House as he urged unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated and others to get booster shots.
New York City will stop quarantining entire classrooms exposed to the coronavirus and will instead prioritize a ramped-up testing program so that asymptomatic students testing negative for Covid-19 can remain in school, officials said on December 28.
Roche said on December 24 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the company’s COVID-19 at-home rapid test that can be used by people as young as 14.
A surge in U.S. COVID-19 cases from the Omicron variant is overwhelming testing capacity in high-infection areas like New York City due in part to staffing shortages among healthcare workers and the limited number of open test sites, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials, health providers and testmakers.
Becton Dickinson and Co. has partnered with Amazon.com Inc. to begin shipment of a new at-home rapid Covid-19 test that can confirm results using an entirely automated smartphone app.
Roche is launching a new genomic profiling kit that lets cancer researchers explore tumors without having to send tissue samples to centralized laboratories, the Swiss drugmaker said on Oct. 25.
