It’s spring break season, and that means you’ve probably got some travel planned in order to kick back and relax. However, coming down with COVID could seriously put a damper on your plans this year. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to get your hands on free COVID tests and treatments.
Read more: Are Your COVID Tests Really Expired? How to Find Out
Recently, the Federal Government halted the United States Postal Service’s free COVID program, which would allow you to order free COVID-19 tests through the USPS. The end of the free COVID-19 testing program comes on the heels of the CDC shifting its official COVID isolation guidelines. Instead of the typical five-day isolation period, the CDC now recommends that you be fever-free and have improving symptoms for 24 hours before returning to normal activities.
However, hope is not lost when it comes to finding free tests. Read on to find out the ways you can still get free COVID testing, as well as how to get your hands on free treatments and COVID vaccines.
For more, here’s what to know about long COVID, and how to tell if it’s COVID, allergies or something else.
What are my free COVID-19 testing options?
Now that you can no longer receive tests from the Postal Service, you have three main avenues to find free COVID-19 testing locations across the US: HRSA health centers, Test to Treat locations and ICATT testing sites. These options function similarly, but we’ll break down the specific steps to find your nearest free testing location.
HRSA health centers offer free COVID-19 testing
The Test to Treat program makes COVID testing and therapeutics more accessible.
Test to Treat is a federally funded health care initiative that provides more accessible COVID-19 care. This option differs from the others in this article as you can use the Test to Treat centers to receive both COVID testing and treatment for infections. Like the other COVID-19 free testing options, Test to Treat has a locator tool that you can use to find an eligible Test to Treat center near you.
The Test to Treat center locator works like the other COVID testing search tools. Enter your location into the search bar and the tool will display Test to Treat locations in your area. A sliding bar lets you resize the search radius to capture all of the Test to Treat centers within your area.
Within the Test to Treat locator results, you’ll be able to see each location’s address, which COVID-19 therapeutics they offer and other special instructions you might need to know to get tested. If there’s not an option to schedule a COVID test online through your chosen site, you may need to call.
