How to order free at-home COVID-19 tests
You can now order free at-home COVID-19 tests from the U.S. federal government. The site went live Tuesday one day ahead of schedule. This comes well after a pre-holiday testing surge and as demand for COVID testing remains high.
To order yours, head to COVIDtests.gov.
You will be asked to provide your name, email, and shipping address. After you confirm the order, a confirmation email will be sent to you.
The site says shipping will happen in late January through the USPS. Only one set of four COVID-19 tests will be sent to each household.
Coachella Valley resident Perrine Crampton decided to order the free tests soon after they became available.
“It was really easy to sign up. Hopefully, it will continue to be easy and the site won't crash. That's why I registered right away," said Crampton. “I'm really looking forward to provided tests that we can do at home so that we don't have to infect each other while we're waiting in line to get a test at a testing facility.”
However, some on social media have already claimed to have encountered some issues in submitting their orders. Issues range from ordering tests to places not listed as residential addresses to trying to get deliveries to different units in the same building.
Looks like the @USPS test ordering portal is either glitching, or doesn't differentiate between different units in apartment/condo buildings. Just got this error message 😖https://t.co/5E5nvW4r1i pic.twitter.com/npSLCCXCBF
— Natalie Shure (@nataliesurely) January 18, 2022
Unfortunately for me I live above a business so the usps has my address listed as not residential so I'm not eligible. But I'm sure someone out there can make use of it.
— Melody Maker (@pixiemelody73) January 18, 2022
https://t.co/XppmIoEy0s
Jose Arballo junior with Riverside County said within the past month, demand for COVID-19 tests has been increasing.
“Anytime we have either the state or the federal government involved, we want to support that operation, again, to get more testing in people's hands," said Arballo. “We're at 955 per 100,000 tests, which is, by far the highest we've ever had and we're testing more than we have before ever.”
Arballo said PCR test results from their locations have usually been getting back to people within 48 hours.
