Several over-the-counter COVID-19 tests become available at stores nationwide this week, part of the ongoing effort to fight the pandemic by making testing more widely available, along with efforts to vaccinate as many adults as possible.

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)WASHINGTON – U.S. health officials have authorized two more over-the-counter COVID-19 tests that can be used at home to get rapid results. The FDA said Abbott’s BinaxNow and Quidel’s QuickVue tests can now be sold without a prescription. Most other COVID-19 tests require a swab sample taken by a health worker at a testing location. AdThe agency authorized an over-the-counter COVID-19 test from an Australian company in December but it is still not widely available. The program will provide free home tests to as many as 160,000 people in two counties in North Carolina and Tennessee.

After a year of struggling to boost testing, communities across the country are seeing plummeting demand, shuttering testing sites or even trying to return supplies. “We just don’t have enough people who are immune to rule out another surge.”U.S. testing hit a peak on Jan. 15, when the country was averaging more than 2 million tests per day. “People just aren’t going to go out to testing sites.”AdBut testing remains important for tracking and containing the outbreak. That’s more than 25 times the country’s current rate of about 40 million tests reported per month. From a public health viewpoint, testing is effective if it helps to quickly find the infected, trace their contacts and isolate them to stop the spread.

This image provided by Abbott Laboratories in August 2020 shows the company's BinaxNOW rapid COVID-19 nasal swab test. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, authorized BinaxNOW, the first rapid coronavirus test that doesnt need any special computer equipment to get results. (Abbott Laboratories via AP)WASHINGTON The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first rapid coronavirus test that doesnt need any special computer equipment to get results. Abbott's BinaxNOW is the fourth rapid test that detects COVID-19 antigens, proteins found on the surface of the coronavirus, rather than the virus itself. "Its not a rapid test, its a laboratory-based test that will still be prone to the same massive delays as any other test," said Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard University.