Why free COVID tests from the government are expiring so soon

While none of the free COVID-19 tests being shipped by the U.S. Postal Service this year will have already expired, officials acknowledge many now arriving in mailboxes will likely see their shelf life run out in a few months. 

So far this season, around 20 million of the 32 million tests ordered through COVIDTests.gov have been shipped. All are supposed to have a shelf life of at least two months, according to the federal Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response or ASPR.

“We’re getting to tests probably that we’ve had in inventory longer because, as we were purchasing, we had a spike in receiving and now we’re not purchasing as much. We’re a little bit further past the peak of COVID,” Arlene Joyner, director of ASPR’s Industrial Based Management and Supply Chain Office, told CBS News.

Joyner’s office oversaw purchasing and delivery of the 12 brands of tests that COVIDTests.gov has supplied over its seven rounds to date.

“The purpose of that program is really to have people utilizing these tests now, the fall through the winter, because we know that’s the season where people most get sick, especially with respiratory illnesses, and they’re preparing for family gatherings,” she said.

ASPR has always used a “first-in-first-out” approach, Joyner said, setting aside the oldest — but still usable — tests to ship out first. The same also applies to 7 million tests sent each week to places like food banks and libraries.

“That is to avoid inventory that is stagnant and sits on the shelf. It’s no use if it’s there. And the worst is if it expires, and then we end up having to discard it,” Joyner said.

Many kits were also purchased earlier during the pandemic, at a time before many manufacturers could prove to the Food and Drug Administration that their tests actually had longer shelf lives. 

This is why over-the-counter tests often have expiration dates that have been extended by the FDA, indicating they’re still good to use long after the initial dates initially printed on their labels.

ASPR uses databases to track its stockpiles of tests across seven warehouses, Joyner said, to avoid shipping tests that are too old.

“Our system is pretty robust. We’re pretty confident that they should not be receiving anything that is lower than the dating that we’re expecting,” she said.