US free COVID-19 tests plan shortchanges Americans of color, hardest-hit communities: report

NEW YORK - The US federal government's free COVID-19 tests plan with the limit of four tests per household will force the tens of millions of Americans who live in multi-generational homes to make difficult and risky decisions about who gets to use them, US public health experts and community activists have warned.

An estimated 64 million Americans live in multi-generational households, a disproportionate number of them people of color and many of them working in essential jobs in cities and communities hardest hit by the pandemic, according to a report by The Washington Post on Sunday.

"There's no consideration for those who are at higher risk. Every time we roll out a plan, why can't we put them to the front?" the report cited Myron Quon, executive director of Pacific Asian Counseling Services, which serves the immigrant community in Los Angeles, as saying.

Four tests for families in vulnerable communities "is just not sufficient. Not even close. They'll have to ration," Quon said.

Of the more than 900,000 people in the United States killed by COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, black, Latino and Native Americans represent a disproportionally large share, with death rates 60 to 90 percent higher than that of white Americans, the report said.