Testing: Still an issue. And Biden is under pressure to do more.

The Biden administration is under pressure to quickly expand rapid coronavirus testing to curb the latest wave of the pandemic.

The current system is being strained, and at-home tests are increasingly rare commodities.

Manufacturers who cut supply as infections dropped during the spring and summer are now scrambling to ramp up operations as demand spikes. But that shift is likely to take weeks.

The benefits of using rapid tests as part of an arsenal to help fight COVID-19 have been known since the beginning of the pandemic, yet the U.S. has not taken advantage of them.

President Biden recently acknowledged that testing efforts have fallen short. “From the start, America has failed to do enough COVID-19 testing,” Biden said in a speech earlier this month outlining the administration’s revamped COVID-19 response plan.

As part of that plan, the White House this week announced the purchase of $2 billion worth of tests, both over-the-counter and point-of-care tests, which can be used in schools, nursing homes, local medical clinics and prisons.

It’s unclear exactly how the kits will be distributed. But advocates and testing experts argue the administration is still too focused on vaccines, and needs to be much more aggressive in promoting the use of rapid antigen tests.