The Biden administration, waiting for a potential winter surge of Covid-19, introduced on Wednesday that it was reviving its program of providing People free coronavirus exams by means of the mail and would spend $600 million to purchase exams from a dozen home producers.

The web site for this system, covidtests.gov, will start accepting orders on Monday, and households will obtain 4 exams. Daybreak O’Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response on the Division of Well being and Human Companies, mentioned the cash would fund the acquisition of 200 million exams to replenish the nation’s stockpile as exams are despatched out.

However a byproduct of this system, Ms. O’Connell mentioned, is that it’s going to shore up home manufacturing capability within the occasion of one other severe coronavirus surge. And if there’s a spike in demand, she mentioned, the division has given the producers permission to promote the exams on to retailers forward of the federal government.

Coronavirus hospitalizations have been on the rise in the US, although they continue to be low in contrast with earlier stretches of the pandemic, and free exams at the moment are tougher to come back by for a lot of People. Whereas non-public insurers had beforehand been required to cowl as much as eight at-home exams per 30 days, that requirement ended when the Biden administration allowed the general public well being emergency for the coronavirus to run out in Could.

The administration first started providing free at-home coronavirus exams by means of the Postal Service early final yr after the Omicron variant triggered instances to soar. Greater than 600 million exams had been distributed earlier than officers halted this system late that summer time, citing a scarcity of funding. The administration then resumed providing exams late final yr earlier than halting this system once more this spring.