>> my covid-19 team -- >> reporter: senior administration officials tell cnn that president biden is set to announce new testing measures today. they'll purchase a half billion at-home rapid tests to be delivered starting in january and set up more federal testing sites including one in new york city that will open before christmas. >> this prior to the pandemic, the u.s. is, you know, light-years behind our, you know, our peer nations in terms of making these tests readily available. >> reporter: last week, cdc director dr. rochelle walensky suggested increased testing will help keep schools open. >> these studies demonstrate the tests to keep unvaccinated children in schools safely. >> reporter: another sign that those swabs could play a massive role in our return to normalcy. how far away are we from a time where we'll have enough tests to accomplish that? >> we can all hope that the testing bottlenecks are resolved quickly, but i'm rather