Voice of America
22 Jan 2022, 08:05 GMT+10
The White House says some of the at-home, free COVID-19 tests it is offering to Americans have begun shipping via the U.S. Postal Service.
During a Friday press briefing, Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said shipping started Thursday.
He said demand has been high and added that there had already been millions of orders through the government website that was launched earlier this week.
He would not provide specific numbers when asked, saying the White House was waiting on data.
Americans are allowed to order four of the tests per household.
The Biden administration has faced criticism for a lack of tests during the omicron surge.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Atlanta, Dec. 8, 2021.
During the briefing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said the average number of omicron cases was down nationally by about 5%, mostly in areas where it began to surge. She said there were about 744,600 cases per day on average in the past seven days.
She warned that some parts of the country could still see an increase in infections.
'In some parts of the country we are seeing the number of daily cases caused by the omicron variant beginning to decline,' she said. 'The surge in cases started at different times in different regions and (we) may continue to see high case counts in some areas of the country in the days and weeks ahead.'
Some information in this report came from Reuters.
Get a daily dose of Santa Barbara Post news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Santa Barbara Post.
More InformationMIAMI, Florida: Local media reported that one person was killed and five were injured when a small plane crashed on ...
The suspect is an 18-year-old white man heavily armed with tactical gear and a helmet, said Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph ...
LOS ANGELES, California: Some 20 homes were destroyed in Southern California this week by a wildfire running down the coast.According ...
KATHMANDU, Nepal - A retired Air Force colonel from the United States climbed the world's highest mountain on Friday morning, ...
Alabama coach Nick Saban apologized Thursday for calling out Texas AM and two other schools during a speech for leveraging ...
As wild as their series opener was, neither the Calgary Flames nor Edmonton Oilers are expecting anything close to a ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The U.S. State Department has announced the launch of a new program to capture and analyze evidence of ...
JAKARTA, Indonesia: A new poll released this week indicated that Indonesian President Joko Widodo's approval rating has hit a six-year ...
EAST JAVA, Indonesia: A tourist bus crashed into a billboard on a highway on Indonesia's main island of Java this ...
BELGRADE, Serbia: Belgrade was paralyzed this week by a series of bomb threats, including against schools, bridges, restaurants and a ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: In a tweet this week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos criticized President Joe Biden for the second time in ...
TEHRAN, Iran: According to social media posts, protests that began last week across Iran over a reduction in state subsidies ...