More than 80% of adults express support for the Biden administration's efforts to distribute tests, according to new polling.
Americans can now order Covid-19 rapid test kits at home.
A survey conducted in January among 1,085 U.S. adults found that 44% had ordered free Covid-19 tests through the government or Postal Service.
The covidtests.gov website went live last week and allows Americans to order four at- home rapid tests.
Only one in five unvaccinated people said they had taken advantage of the program, compared to half of the vaccine recipients.
The majority of respondents said they supported the free test initiative.
The Biden administration's new program to distribute high-quality N95 masks for free through pharmacies and community health centers is supported by 84% of respondents.
The best estimate of how popular the program has been is the number of Americans who have ordered free Covid-19 tests through the federal government. White House officials have not said how many tests have been ordered, but they expect to make those numbers public this week. Over the past week, covidtests.gov and the USPS page for ordering the tests have been the most visited government websites.
Whether the popularity of the test and mask programs will help improve President Joe Biden's approval rating and how Americans view the administration's Covid-19 response. Biden's approval ratings have dropped to the lowest point of his presidency this month due to the administration's handling of the omicron surge and widespread testing shortages. Biden has a 41.3% approval rating on average as of Monday and only 44.1% approve of his response to the coronaviruses, down from approximately 49% in mid-November before the omicron variant was first detected, according to a FiveThirtyEight aggregate of polls.
In December, the Biden administration said it would distribute 500 million at- home tests. The initiative came in response to widespread criticism that the White House hadn't done more to make at- home testing available as other countries had. The highly transmissible omicron variant has made cloth masks less protective and Biden committed to rolling out N95 masks in January.
Axios has a poll on Omicron's big numbers.
The White House Covid Test Website launches a day early.
Biden will announce the roll out of 400 million free N95 masks.
Live updates on the coronaviruses.
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