Even though the Federal government is mailing out four COVID test kits from the covidtests.gov website to those signing up, the demand for testing is going through the proverbial roof.

There is no question the U.S. population is ‘late to the dance’ in providing testing, as opposed to most nations. In President Biden’s news conference on Wednesday he conceded: “the U.S. should have done more earlier to boost COVID-19 testing while he pledged not to return to lockdowns and said the omicron variant was not a cause for panic.

“Should we have done more testing earlier? Yes, but we’re doing more now,” Biden told reporters at the White House. He said there are currently 20,000 sites where people can be tested for free.

Biden also said “we’re not going back to closing schools.”

Even though personal medical insurance coverage now covers the cost of store purchased COVID test, actually finding them on stocked store shelves is nearly impossible.

Area counties jumped on the bandwagon, scooping up massive quantities at wholesale prices. Monroe County purchased up to a million tests. Ontario County purchased a quantity, making the cooperative purchase by Wayne County of 25,000 units/50,000 for the i-HEALTH COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test kits. each kit contains two tests.

Wayne County is paying for the test kits through an unassigned fund balance of $474,000.

According to County Administrator, Rick House, the County is setting up a portal for families to register for the test kits, with four sites around the county for pick ups, along with a stockpile of KN95 masks.

The State is also issuing an additional 4,000 kits to Wayne County.

One of the problems with the current test kit purchases, according to House, is that they have a shelf life of June, 2022, so stockpiling is not an option.

House has also asked for an additional one million dollars to the county budget for additional purchases.