AUGUSTA — The Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday it has purchased more than 1 million over-the-counter COVID-19 tests that it will use to immediately support child care facilities and position Maine to meet potential future needs as the pandemic continues.

DHHS will begin distributing up to 250,000 of the federally funded tests this week to child care facilities to help limit the spread of COVID-19 while minimizing job disruptions for parents and employers.

This expanded access to home testing helps support a new option of “test to stay” for children in child care and other early childhood education programs, which allows parents to regularly test their children who are close contacts to keep them in child care rather than in quarantine. Child care facilities may order the home tests through DHHS for distribution to the families they serve.

The Department began receiving its order of 1.05 million Siemens Clinitest home tests last week. It will reserve the remainder of the tests to position Maine to meet future needs in the event of a new surge of COVID-19, with a focus on supporting families with school-aged children, underserved communities, and congregate living settings.

The Department additionally announced it will continue the successful Project Access COVID-19 Tests (ACT) pilot, making an additional 300,000 free tests available directly to Maine people by mail order. Maine is the first among the six participating states to extend the Project ACT pilot.

As of March 15, Maine households have ordered 229,845 tests through Project ACT, with over 100,000 of these supported by the new contract. Added to the Foundation’s original donation of 125,000 tests, this totals 425,000 tests. Every household in Maine is eligible to order one set of five at-home rapid tests at www.accessCOVIDTests.org.

“Testing for COVID-19 remains a critical tool, along with vaccination, in preventing the spread of this highly contagious disease,” said Jeanne Lambrew, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, and Nirav D. Shah, Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “This expansion of home testing options will help give working families more predictability in their schedules while protecting the health of children and Maine people of all ages.”

In this new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State of Maine is shifting its focus on testing toward securing home tests, as the quality, accessibility, and affordability of home tests for COVID-19 has increased in the past six months.

Maine people in need of home tests may also order them through the federal program. The White House recently announced that U.S. residents can order two sets of four free at-home tests through COVIDtests.gov. Residents can also call 1-800-232-0233 for help placing the order.

Maine’s expansion of home testing capacity also complements PCR and rapid tests provided at pharmacies and other sites. DHHS will continue through the fall its testing capacity in partnership with IDEXX, Shield T3, and Walgreens which administers BinaxNOW rapid tests at no cost to consumers.