Big retailers are now restricting sales of at-home COVID tests. Here are the new limits
Big retailers are limiting the sale of rapid at-home COVID-19 tests to help ensure their availability as some people find empty shelves instead of the in-demand product.
CVS Pharmacy announced Tuesday a limit of six test kits per purchase “to ensure equitable access to tests both in store and digitally,” according to a statement sent Wednesday by Shannon Dillon, a pharmacy spokesperson.
The tests may be temporarily out-of-stock on CVS.com due to a recent surge in demand and to make sure the tests are accessible in stores, Dillon noted.
Walgreens is also limiting at-home tests sales — both online and in stores — to four items per purchase “in an effort to help improve inventory while we continue to work diligently with our supplier partners to best meet customer demands,” the pharmacy announced Tuesday in a news release.
“Some stores may experience a temporary shortage in rapid OTC testing solutions,” the company noted.
Walmart is also seeing a “significant demand” on COVID-19 testing kits — limiting their purchase to eight kits per online order “to help ensure availability to more customers,” Walmart spokesperson Tricia Moriarty said in an email sent Wednesday.
The retailer has not placed limits nationally for in-store purchases, but each store may or may not set its own limits based upon local inventory, Moriarty said.
“We have strong inventory levels nationally in store, however inventory is more limited online,” Moriarty said.
Amazon has been limiting its Amazon COVID-19 Test Collection Kit to 10, an Amazon spokesperson said in an email sent Wednesday.
“At this time, similar to other retailers, we are experiencing inventory shortages on some COVID-19 tests due to increased demand,” the spokesperson said.
Amazon also allows third party sellers to set their own product quantity limits for COVID-19 tests available on Amazon.com, the spokesperson said.
At least two pharmaceutical companies, Abbott and Siemens, have said their at-home tests are effective at detecting the omicron variant as South Florida COVID-19 test sites see long lines again.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 4:45 PM.
