After weeks of tiptoeing around the topic (I think we all know why), the Biden administration is stepping up efforts to prepare the public for a winter covid surge. Via CNN:

“This is not one disease in isolation,” Jha said, referring to the ongoing wave of Covid-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza. “The stress on hospitals and stress on health care workers is because of all the respiratory pathogens. So we are very aware that this increase that we’re seeing in Covid is in that context of one of the worst flu seasons in a decade and RSV that was quite bad.”

[...] The Biden administration’s renewed push to encourage people to use all of the necessary tools available to keep Covid-19 at bay – getting vaccinated and boosted, making use of tests and treatments and masking up when necessary – are all part of achieving what Jha said is the White House’s ultimate goal: preventing serious illness, hospitalizations and death.

As a part of its new push, the administration is restarting the free at-home Covid-19 test program, permitting each American household to order up to four free tests this winter from COVIDTests.gov. It is also offering federal resources to local health departments, putting an extra focus on high-risk individuals including by providing a winter playbook for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, and permitting nursing home staff to administer vaccinations.

If you want the tests, better order them fast. Congress did not fund the purchase of further tests. Via Politico:

Biden officials paused the USPS program in early September over concerns that the high demand for free tests had put the administration on pace to deplete its stockpile before winter. They warned at the time the government could not afford to purchase more tests absent new funding from Congress, and needed to preserve the “limited remaining supply” for future Covid-19 surges. More than 600 million at-home tests had gone out to households across the country by the time the program was halted.

After a lull throughout much of the summer and fall, Covid cases have risen notably in recent weeks, worrying health officials that the U.S. could be on the verge of another wave. The White House now plans to announce that it’s reopening access to its stockpile of tests for a limited time as part of a broader “winter preparedness plan” it will roll out on Thursday.