On Tuesday, the Biden administration quietly launched its website for Americans to apply for free at-home COVID-19 testing, a day before the site was scheduled to go live.
The website COVIDTests.gov now includes a link to “Every Household in America” to access orders run by the U.S. Postal Service. People can order up to four home tests for each residential address, delivered by the Postal Service. It marks the latest move by President Joe Biden to address criticism of low stocks and long lines of testing amid a nationwide surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the site is in “beta testing” and is running at “limited capacity” ahead of its official launch. The site will officially launch Wednesday morning, Psaki said. There were separate reports Tuesday afternoon that the site’s address verification tool had incorrectly imposed a cap of four people per household on apartment buildings and other multi-unit dwellings. In a statement, a Postal Service spokesman said the error “occurs on a small percentage of orders.” Any user in need of assistance can file a service request at emailus.usps.com/s/the-postal-store-inquiry, or contact the help desk at 1-800-ASK-USPS, he said.
More than 750,000 people visited the site at the same time on Tuesday, according to public government tracking data, but it was unclear how many orders were made.
Psaki added that the government expected “one or two mistakes”, but IT experts across the government were working to get the site ready. Biden announced last month that the U.S. would buy 500 million home tests to kick-start the program and continue on Thursday, when the president announced he was doubling the order to 1 billion tests.
But Americans shouldn’t expect a quick turnaround in the order, and they must plan ahead and request testing before meeting federal guidelines on when to use it.
“Tests typically ship via USPS within 7-12 days of ordering,” the White House said, with the company reporting 1-3 days for its best-in-class package service in the continental U.S.
Officials stressed that the federal website is just one way for people to buy COVID-19 tests, and the shortage of home test kits has shown signs of easing as more supplies enter the market.
Since Saturday, private insurers have been required to cover the cost of rapid home tests, allowing Americans to be reimbursed for tests purchased at pharmacies and online retailers. This includes up to eight tests per month.
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