Americans have started placing orders for their Free Covid-19 Tests deliveries

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The US Postal Service posted a form online and Americans started placing orders for their free deliveries just a day ahead of the scheduled launch of free Covid-19 tests. Last week, the Biden administration announced the public launch covidtests.gov website on Wednesday. Point to be noted that some early visitors to the website were already able to see a button to order their free tests on Tuesday morning. It was a limited rollout that appears to have been expanded to more visitors later Tuesday afternoon. Moreover, the public interest in the site has already increased visitors and left all other government websites behind. At least 380 thousand visited the test website by early Tuesday afternoon, though interest in tracking packages sent using the U.S. Postal service was just over 31,500.

On Tuesday, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki informed reporters and said, “It will officially launch tomorrow morning. It’s in the beta testing phase right now”. Every US residential address is eligible to order 4 rapid antigen Covid-19 tests for free from the Postal Service, which will start shipping tests in late January. Some Americans were already able to order free at-home COVID-19 tests through the White House’s program earlier this week, granted priority access through a portal launched with the NACHW (National Association of Community Health Workers) for people living in high-risk zip codes. The NACHW’s website said, “Orders will be prioritized for equitable distribution based on communities that are hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic”. The White House also says it plans to launch a hotline that will allow Americans to order their own tests over the phone.

The Biden administration said its 4-test limit was imposed to promote broad access to the program. It has also launched other efforts including a requirement for private insurers to cover the cost of over-the-counter at-home tests to help expand the distribution of needed tests. Federal health officials have expressed confidence in the Postal Service’s ability to gather orders for tests and accommodate a possible surge in demand. Last week, a White House official said, “We didn’t start from scratch. The Postal Service is an important partner here. They already have a website that does sell goods to the public and has for quite some time”. US Postal Service will deliver the Covid-19 test orders via its first-class service.