The government is sending free rapid tests, but don’t expect them all before omicron's peak

The Biden administration's plan to send 500 million at-home tests to Americans for free will take weeks or months to fully execute, an ABC News analysis suggests.

The Biden administration's plan to send 500 million at-home tests to Americans for free is an historic undertaking, but one that will take weeks or months to fully execute, recently released contracts and interviews with seven test manufacturers suggest.

Contracts for the first two batches of tests were announced on Friday, one for 13.3 million kits from a health technology company and another for an undisclosed amount from a distribution company in Virginia that had extras on hand -- all to be distributed in an effort to reduce the massive testing shortage in the U.S.

And while a White House official told ABC News that the rest of the contracts to fulfill the 500-million pledge are expected to be awarded in the next two weeks, the cumbersome process of ramping up test availability indicates that the plan won't deliver a quick fix.

Tests won't be available to be ordered through a government website until later this month, the official said, meaning it's unlikely the average American will get free tests delivered in time for the January peak of omicron cases predicted by most models.