There is a sign at a store in Brooklyn that says there is no more at home Covid-19 tests.
Broadway Chemists in New York City has been struggling to keep up with demand for Covid-19 tests as cases surge to record highs across the state and in the U.S.
He said a shipment of 200 tests sold out within a couple of hours.
The owner of the pharmacy had a list of over 100 people who were waiting for him to give them home tests. He said that the 150-kit shipment sold out within 48 hours. Most of the 150 tests that Broadway Chemists received last Thursday were gone in a day.
The pharmacy only had 20 to 30 tests left in stock. Parents rush to get their kids tested when schools reopen after the holidays, and that's when demand will remain high.
The Covid infections have reached all-time highs in the U.S. due to the highly contagious omicron variant.
John Koval, spokesman for Abbott, said that the company is experiencing "unprecedented demand."
He said that they were sending them out as fast as possible. He said that this includes investing in automation and hiring more workers.
The founder of a company that sells at- home tests online said the surge in demand has allowed distributors to hike prices as buyers like his company are locked in a bidding war to secure limited supply.
We are paying 25% more for test kits today than we were a week ago. Someone is in line behind us and says, "I will give you 25 cents more to take what Well Before's allocation is."
Covid test kits are sold before they arrive.
The vice president of logistics at Sunline Supply and Arnold's Office Furniture said they normally pay a 10% deposit on health and safety products and then the rest when they arrive.
He thinks the market for test kits will be tight because they have to pay 100% of the product before they can see it.
He said that the production is not able to meet the needs of the American population.
Some of the lesser-known brands that have been approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration are being tried out by several wholesale buyers. Neuman said some distributors of the more popular tests are overcharging, making the lesser-known brands more appealing.
Code 1 Supply's president and CEO said Thursday that components for test kits dried up over the previous seven to 10 days. Business partners have said there is a shortage of raw materials for the test kits. They told him that federal agencies are the priority over other buyers.
Three other companies that sell Covid at- home tests that spoke with CNBC, including iPromo, Sunline Supply and nonprofit Project N95, said they were similarly told the Biden administration's new plan to supply 500 million at- home tests to the public was delaying their own shipments. The White House said that its plans should not affect agreements between private parties.
A White House official said in a statement to CNBC that the purchase can be made without disrupting existing manufacturers' commitments to states or organizations.
Steven Tang, CEO of rapid test manufacturer, said ramping up test manufacturing is difficult. Staffing up to add more shifts to make up for a shortage of test components is a challenge when demand fluctuates so much.
When we thought that vaccines would take care of everything, people began to decrease the amount of supply and the amount of labor and shifts. Heading into the fall, demand for testing began to rise again. Businesses that are scaling up thrive when there is consistency of demand and predictability. He said that we are not in a predictable situation.
To be sure, test kit manufacturers are ramping up production and new companies are waiting for FDA approval to start selling their tests to the public. The Covid tests should be more readily available in the coming months.
If the FDA approves more tests in the coming weeks, the nation will be in a better place by the second quarter, according to Well Before.
Project N95 executive director Anne Miller thinks the testing crunch will be over by the middle of this month.
Abbott, one of the nation's largest test makers, is increasing supply. Koval said that the company can scale significantly further in the months ahead, and that it is targeting 70 million rapid tests in January.
This report was contributed to by CNBC's Sevanny Campos.
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Biden administration will give 500 million free at- home Covid tests.
