WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it has shipped 200 million free COVID-19 tests to homes across the country.

"Eighty-five percent of the initial orders are now out the door," said White House COVID-19 response team coordinator Jeff Zients.

He added that the remaining orders will be shipped in the "next several days."

The Biden administration began shipping free at-home tests after facing criticism for test shortages as the omicron variant was surging.

COVIDTests.gov launched in mid-January. It allows people to order four free tests per household.

The tests are sent via USPS First Class mail in the continental U.S., and through Priority Mail in Alaska, Hawaii and in U.S. territories.

Zients praised the Postal Service for its efforts.

"Once the package ships, over 60% are delivered within 24 hours and 90% in 48 hours," Zients said.

Zients said the U.S. has contracts ready for an additional 800 million tests.

Private health insurers will soon be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month for those on their plans starting Saturday, the White House Office of COVID-19 Response confirmed during a press briefing Wednesday.

The Biden administration announced the change Monday as it looks to lower costs and make testing for the virus more convenient amid high frustrations. Under the new policy, Americans will be able to either obtain home testing kits for free or purchase them and then submit receipts for the tests for subsequent reimbursement, up to the monthly per-person limit.

A family of four, for instance, could be reimbursed for up to 32 tests over-the-counter tests per month. Only tests purchased on or after Jan. 15 will be required to be reimbursed.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a Monday news release that the administration is "requiring insurers and group health plans to make tests free for millions of Americans. This is all part of our overall strategy to ramp-up access to easy-to-use, at-home tests at no cost."

During a White House press briefing on Monday, press secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration plans to begin to have free coronavirus tests available to Americans and "out the door in the coming weeks," she said. Psaki continued elaborating on the delay up until now saying "the contracts [for testing companies] are structured in a way to require that significant amounts are delivered on an aggressive timeline, the first of which should be arriving early next week."

As NPR reported, the Biden administration says it is working to incentivize insurers, along with group health plans, to try and get over-the-counter PCR and rapid tests from preferred pharmacies and other retailers into the hands of Americans with no out-of-pocket costs incurring.

President Joe Biden says the federal government will buy half a billion COVID-19 rapid test kits and distribute them free of charge to people to use at home. But despite the high public demand for tests, it will still be several more weeks before these kits are available to be shipped. The administration is still working on details for how the program will work.

DOES THE GOVERNMENT HAVE THE TESTS?

Not yet. As of this week, the departments of Defense and Health and Human Services were “executing on what's called an ‘accelerated emergency contract,'" the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said. A contract is expected to be signed soon.

WHEN WILL THE TEST KITS BE DELIVERED?

The first delivery is expected in early January. All 500 million kits will not be delivered at the same time but instead will arrive in batches.

MY DRUGSTORE DOESN'T HAVE ANY TESTS. HOW CAN I GET A FREE KIT FROM THE GOVERNMENT?

You'll go to a new government website to request a kit, but the site won't be functional until after the first batch of test kits have been delivered, Psaki said. She said the process was being handled that way to avoid creating more confusion for the public. But the idea is that anyone who wants a test kit would log onto this website to request one.

“We’re obviously not going to put the website up until there are tests available,” Psaki said.

WHICH HOME TEST WILL I GET?

It's unclear. But Psaki noted that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved several different brands of rapid home tests.

WILL I BE LIMITED TO ONE TEST OR CAN I REQUEST MULTIPLE?

To be determined, Psaki said.

WHY IS BIDEN BUYING THESE TEST KITS?

It represents an acknowledgment by the president that the administration needs to do more to increase access to COVID-19 testing, which is an important tool to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

In cases where infected people show symptoms or not, testing is the only way to find out if they have the virus so they can avoid being out and about and potentially spreading the disease.

But demand for test kits soared as the holidays neared and people grew eager to test themselves and their families before traveling, and as the easily transmissible omicron variant spread rapidly in just a few weeks to become the dominant strain in the U.S.

Biden's promise of 500 million test kits is in addition to the administration's earlier pledge to send 50 million rapid tests to community health centers across the country.

IS THERE ANOTHER WAY TO GET A TEST KIT FOR FREE

Biden said in a speech Tuesday that, starting in January, private insurers will cover the cost of at-home testing. So people will have the option of buying tests at a store or online and then seeking reimbursement from their health insurance provider.

The government will also provide access to free at-home tests for people who may not have health insurance, Biden said.

Can at-home COVID-19 tests make holiday gatherings safer?

Yes, combined with vaccination, home test kits for COVID-19 can add a layer of safety and reassurance by providing on-the-spot results during this second year of pandemic holidays.

"We will be using rapid tests to double check everybody before we gather together," says Dr. Emily Volk, president of the College of American Pathologists, who is planning a holiday meal with six vaccinated family members. "We'll be doing it as they come in the door."

Home kits are not as accurate as the PCR tests done in hospitals and at testing sites, Volk says. But they have the advantage of giving results within minutes instead of days.

Testing kits are available at drugstores without a prescription, and a box with two tests typically costs about $25. Swabs, testing solution and instructions are included.

Adults and teens can test themselves. An adult can test a child as young as 2. How-to videos on product websites can be helpful.

Most tests require swabbing about a half inch inside both nostrils, so it may tickle but doesn't hurt. You will get a positive result if the test detects a viral protein in your sample.

Home tests will miss some infections and in rare cases mistakenly indicate an infection. One popular test misses around 15 out of 100 infections — these are called "false negatives" — and gives a false positive result in about 1 in 100 people who aren't infected.

Test shortages were widely reported during the last COVID-19 surge, but new options have recently hit the market and major manufacturers such as Abbott Laboratories have ramped up production.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers other tips on ways to enjoy the holidays safely. Vaccination remains the best way to protect against the coronavirus.

COVINGTON, Ky. — Michael Tudor is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 but routinely gets tested every two weeks. As the delta variant surges across the region, though, he's finding he has to wait in longer and longer lines to get swabbed, and as the Labor Day holiday weekend approached, those lines got even longer still.

"We've been trying to do it pretty regularly just to make sure we're not passive carriers," the Ludlow, Kentucky, resident said. "I'm glad people are getting tested."

The swell in demand for COVID-19 testing was prompted not just by the recent spike in cases across the region, but also the start of the school year and holiday and seasonal travel.

It's had Tony Remington, CEO of Covington-based Gravity Diagnostics, and his team running ragged, sometimes testing as many as 1,000 patients a day.

"We're burned out," he told WCPO Friday. "We don't want to do testing anymore. We don't want to set up drive-thrus, but it's the culmination of things."

For much of the pandemic, Gravity has operated five free drive-thru testing sites — subsidized by state funds — across the commonwealth and in Indiana, with 15 more sites planned to pop up over the next two weeks. One of those sites, located on a surface parking lot near the now decommissioned IRS building along Covington's Fourth Street corridor near the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, lately has seen those drive-thru lines back up out onto the street.

"We're close to saying, 'Sorry, we can't set that up for you anymore,'" he said. "But we're not there yet."

Kiana Martinez, a mother of six, said she needs to get tested but is finding it difficult to find appointments. She tried an area Walgreens, where she was told they didn't have any tests available. Some stores have run out of take-home tests. CVS on Wednesday had to work with a new supplier to try to keep up with their national demand.

"We don't want to see one person who wants testing not get testing and a fast result," Remington said.

It's why he said his crews are working seven days a week, some pulling 18-hour shifts to make sure their clinics get rapid results for as many as they can.