Reimbursement for At-Home Virus Tests Starts Next Week. White House Says

• Jan. 5, 2022Updated 3:42 p.m. ET

President Biden’s coronavirus effect coordinator said Wednesday that, opening adjacent week, Americans struggling to get tested for the coronavirus volition beryllium capable to person the outgo of accelerated at-home tests reimbursed by their insurers, but offered nary circumstantial promises astir erstwhile escaped tests would beryllium available.

The remarks by Jeff Zients, who leads the White House pandemic response, travel 2 weeks aft Mr. Biden said his medication would bargain fractional a cardinal accelerated tests to administer escaped to the public, and that security companies would statesman reimbursing radical for tests they purchased connected their own. Mr. Biden said astatine the clip that the escaped tests would beryllium disposable “in the coming weeks.”

With the Omicron variant of the coronavirus fueling a crisp emergence successful cases crossed the country, request for each kinds of tests is acold outpacing supply. In immoderate areas, radical are waiting successful agelong lines to instrumentality the highly delicate polymerase concatenation reaction, oregon P.C.R., tests that are administered astatine aesculapian clinics. Rapid at-home tests are flying disconnected pharmacy shelves.

“We cognize this remains frustrating for radical getting tested successful galore parts of the country,” Mr. Zients said connected Wednesday. “So we are moving to bash each we can.”

The administration’s caller “test to stay” guidance for schools, successful which students exposed to the microorganism tin stay successful the schoolroom if they trial negative, is among the factors driving up request for the accelerated tests.

Last week, erstwhile Dr. Rochelle Walensky, manager of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, omitted a investigating request from caller isolation guidelines, she was greeted with a chorus of disapproval from nationalist wellness experts who said a antagonistic trial should beryllium required earlier an infected idiosyncratic ends a five-day isolation period.

On Tuesday, the C.D.C. amended the latest guidance — not to accidental that investigating was required, but to accidental that radical who wanted to extremity their isolation periods aft 5 days and had entree to tests whitethorn take to instrumentality them. If the trial results are positive, they should enactment location for different 5 days, the guidance says; if negative, and their symptoms are resolving, they whitethorn spell out, but should proceed to deterioration masks successful nationalist for different 5 days.

Addressing reporters connected Wednesday, Dr. Walensky said she omitted a investigating request from the guidance due to the fact that accelerated tests are not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration to find whether idiosyncratic is infectious to others; they are authorized simply to observe infection, and are meant to beryllium utilized serially, arsenic is the lawsuit successful schools.

But aft the guidance was released, she said, “it became precise wide that radical were funny successful utilizing the accelerated tests,” and since that was the case, she astatine slightest wanted to “provide guidance connected however they should beryllium used.”

The proposal for the wide nationalist is antithetic from the 1 for wellness attraction workers, who are required to trial antagonistic earlier going backmost to work. Dr. Walensky said the C.D.C. was ever much blimpish successful its recommendations for wellness workers, due to the fact that they attraction for susceptible people, including those with anemic immune systems.

The Coronavirus Pandemic: Key Things to Know

Matching investigating proviso with request has been a situation for some the Trump and Biden administrations. Early successful the pandemic, determination was a shortage of tests and the components that marque up trial kits. By precocious 2020, manufacturers had expanded production. But erstwhile vaccines arrived, the Biden medication enactment little accent connected testing. Demand plunged, and manufacturers pulled back.

Now the manufacturers are moving astatine afloat velocity again. Mr. Zients said manufacturers would statesman delivering accelerated tests kits to the national authorities adjacent week, and that the medication would acceptable up a “free and casual system, including a website” wherever Americans could bid them.

Jen Psaki, the White House property secretary, told reporters connected Wednesday that caller national investigating sites would unfastened this week successful the District of Columbia and Philadelphia, followed soon aft by Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Delaware, Texas and Washington state. She noted that mobile investigating sites were already unfastened successful New York City and New Jersey.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.