US government to send schools millions more COVID-19 tests
As U.S. President Joe Biden vows to keep all schools safely open for full-time in-person learning amid the pandemic, his administration announced Wednesday that it will provide schools with an additional 10 million COVID-19 tests per month.
The federal government will send 5 million more rapid tests and 5 million more lab-based PCR tests to schools nationwide each month, at no cost. The rapid tests will be delivered starting later this month, while the PCR tests will be available immediately. The additional tests every month will allow the country's schools to "more than double the volume of testing that took place in schools across the nation in November," according to a fact sheet from the White House.
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Moreover, as the Biden administration continues to surge testing sites to hard-hit and high-risk communities, the federal government will also "consider how these sites can support the safe operations of K-12 schools," the White House said.
The U.S. Department of Education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also help connect schools with testing providers so they can use money allocated to them last year through the $1.9-trillion COVID-19 stimulus package. Later this week, the CDC will provide new training, resources and materials to help schools implement "test-to-stay" policies, according to the White House.
-ABC News' Ben Gittleson