Since we’re almost two years into this pandemic, most of us have a similar story: We’ve had a COVID-19 scare or some symptoms, but finding a timely test was difficult.
The federal government hopes to alleviate some of that burden, especially during another surge, by allowing residential households in the U.S. to order one set of four free at-home COVID tests "so you have them when you need them.”
Hop onto covidtests.gov and fill out some basic information that takes less than five minutes. And, for a government website, it’s actually quick and easy to navigate. No username and password is needed, and orders are free of cost, with no shipping and handling. After you submit the info, a confirmation email is sent from USPS, informing the user that a tracking code will be sent after shipment.
Orders are expected to start shipping in late January.
The government launched the site a day earlier than expected for a beta test. And it appears they are still working out some bugs, as some Americans have already been blocked from ordering.
The free at-home testing website is an initiative by U.S. President Joe Biden to combat shortages. In December, the president announced that the U.S. would purchase 500 million at-home tests. That number was recently upped to one billion.
This story was originally published by CityBeat sister paper LEO Weekly.
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