NEWPORT, Ky. — President Joe Biden announced the purchase of half a billion at-home COVID-19 testing kits for free delivery to American homes.
With at-home testing now in the spotlight, one Kentucky lab answers some common questions about the kits.
What You Need To Know
- Biden announced the purchase of 500 million at-home testing kits to go out in January in an effort to curb the omicron surge
- White House officials say they're looking to provide testing that's free and more accessible to all Americans
- Ethos is a lab that operates in Newport but serves many across the state of Kentucky, and even has served those across the country
- They offer many kinds of self-test kits that will even catch the newest variant of COVID-19
“It’s amazing. I mean it’s a great initiative, obviously. The more testing the better so we can identify more states of health and try to keep safe," said Dr. Majors Badgett with Ethos in Newport.
During a briefing on Tuesday, White House officials were asked about the ongoing shortage of at-home testing kits seen all across the nation. They said this is the largest purchase they've done to date in effort to make testing more free and accessible to those across the country.
Dr. Badgett said Ethos has prepped for the demand. They offer all kinds of testing, specifically self-test kits. People can choose tests where they can read the answers within minutes, or send the test they took at home back to the lab for results.
Badgett said it's even possible to detect omicron.
“We use two rapid antigen tests – the avid Binax now or the Quidel QuickVue. Both are able to detect positive SARS-CoV-2 cases," Badgett said.
In both cases, you get a sense of whether you're currently positive or negative. In the Ethos lab, Badgett and others work to further identify which variant you may have.
But the end goal is just ensuring you're at least healthy to see loved ones, especially over the holidays.
“The number one thing is really to be safe if you feel like you have symptoms or are worried about COVID, then absolutely get tested," Dr. Badgett said.
He also said the CDC's website has answers to all kinds of questions on testing.