Washington, Jan. 18 (BUS) – The Biden administration on Tuesday quietly launched its website for Americans to request free COVID-19 tests at home, a day before the site is scheduled to be officially released online.
The COVIDTests.gov website now includes a link for Americans to access an application form operated by the United States Postal Service. People can order four at-home tests for each residential address, to be delivered by mail service.
This is the latest move by President Joe Biden to counter criticism of low stockpiles and long queues for testing during the national surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant, an Associated Press report said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the site was in “beta testing” and operating “in a limited capacity” before its official launch. Psaki said the site will be officially launched in the middle of Wednesday morning.
There were sporadic reports on Tuesday afternoon of issues with a website address verification tool that wrongly enforces a maximum of four people per family on apartment buildings and other multi-unit dwellings, but it wasn’t immediately clear how widespread the problem would be.
At Tuesday points, more than 750,000 people were accessing the site at the same time, according to public government tracking data, but it was not immediately known how many requests were made.
She added that the administration was anticipating a “mistake or two”, but that there were IT experts from across the government working to prepare the site.
Biden announced last month that the United States would buy 500 million home tests to launch the program, and on Thursday the president announced he was doubling demand to one billion tests.
The White House said that “tests will typically ship within 7 to 12 days of ordering” through USPS, which reports 1-3 day shipping times for first-class packages in the continental United States.
Officials emphasized that the federal website is just one way for people to purchase COVID-19 tests, and the shortage of at-home test kits has shown signs of waning as more supplies hit the market.
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