Free COVID tests available again; Chicago hospitalizations rise

The federal government is bringing back its offer of free at-home tests for COVID-19.

The tests were made available Monday and can be requested at COVIDTests.gov. The orders include four rapid antigen tests, with a limit of one order per residential address.

The site’s simple request form asks visitors to share their name and mailing address. No payment information is required. Orders will begin to ship via the U.S. Postal Service next week, according to the delivery service.

The decision to again offer free at-home tests was announced by the Biden administration last week as part of a $600 million plan that includes funding for test production. The government plans to make the tests available through the holidays in an effort to slow the virus’s spread, said Dawn O’Connell, the Department of Health and Human Services’ assistant secretary for preparedness and response.

“Whether or not people are done with it, we know the virus is there, we know that it’s circulating,” O’Connell said. “We know, if past is prologue, it’ll circulate to a higher degree and spread, and cases will go up in the fall and winter seasons.”

Along with the tests already available at stores and pharmacies, the free tests will help make Chicagoans ready for the fall and winter, said Massimo Pacilli, the Chicago Department of Public Health’s deputy commissioner of disease control.

People should test when they have symptoms or five days after they are exposed to someone with COVID-19, he said. Testing allows people to “isolate to protect others, and seek treatment early if they are more likely to get severely sick,” he added.

COVID-19 in Chicago

Though Chicago remains at a “low” COVID-19 risk level, the city’s hospitalizations rose 30% last week, according to CDPH data.

The jump continues a gradual rise in hospitalizations that has been underway since the critical indicator of the disease’s spread and severity hit pandemic lows in July.

The number of lab-confirmed cases, however, slightly dropped in Chicago for the second week in a row. Health administrators have previously warned the indicator is less reflective of the disease’s spread because fewer people are seeking lab-based testing.

The increased hospitalizations are a “reflection of increased COVID-19 activity,” Pacilli said.

He called the rise “a powerful reminder COVID-19 is still with us and it will continue to result in waves of infections, some requiring hospitalization.”

However, Pacilli added, the city is only seeing about one-third of the hospitalizations it had a year ago. The long-term decline in severe cases is “largely thanks to immunity from vaccinations and prior infections,” he said.

A new vaccine updated to better protect against severe illness with the virus’s spreading variants in mind arrived in Chicago last week. Meanwhile, as clinics, hospitals and pharmacies first began to stock the new inoculation, the number of Chicagoans who got vaccinated last week dropped to pandemic lows.

“As more providers have available vaccine supplies, we expect vaccinations to increase in the coming weeks,” Pacilli said.

For help placing an order for at-home tests, call the CDC’s help information line at 1-800-232-0233.

The Associated Press contributed.