Focus at Four: Federal government suspends free COVID testing, epidemiologist breaks down current numbers
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – The federal government is suspending its free at-home COVID-19 test program on Friday.
Since November, U.S. households have been able to go to a government website and order four individual rapid antigen COVID-19 tests. Officials suspended the rapid test distribution program last May after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
They re-opened it in late September as virus season began to ramp up.
Edward Davila, an Epidemiologist with the Brazos County Health District said cases in the area have significantly dwindled, as they have across the country.
“As of the 24th of February, the hospitalization rate for Brazos County is sitting at low. A low level indicates that the hospitalization rate is sitting at less than 10 individuals per 100,000 residents over the past,” said Davila.
Davila also said that in the time since the pandemic started, scientists have learned a lot about the virus.
“We’ve had four years to study the virus to collect data. So while we do believe that positive individuals and isolation and general safety are still important, we’re not scrutinizing with the same level of detail that we did at the beginning,” he said.
Davila mentioned that COVID-19 is singular in the way it acts and develops.
“A very novel virus in the way that it’s been able to kind of move through the population, how quickly it’s mutated and how it’s forced us to adapt on the fly. I think that’s one of the things that we’ve been forced to observe as a nation is that that scientific method as it occurs in real-time,” he said.
For more information on the Brazos County Health District, click here.
