The Biden Administration announced that it is buying 1 billion COVID-19 rapid tests to give to Americans for free. The online ordering opened Tuesday and is limited to four rapid tests per household.
Americans can order the tests at COVIDTests.gov, and tests will typically ship within 7-12 days of ordering, according to a press release from the White House.
Recommended Videos
The link will take you to a form from the United States Postal Service. Find that direct link here.
Public health experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that Americans use at-home tests if they begin to have symptoms, at least five days after coming in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 or is gathering indoors with a group of people who are at risk of severe disease or unvaccinated.
The tests will be mailed directly to American households.
How Many Tests Can I Get?
While the free tests will available for every household, the initial program will allow only 4 free tests to be requested per residential address.
The administration also announced that starting Monday, Jan. 15, private health insurance companies will be required to cover at-home COVID-19 tests for free—and made an additional 10 million COVID-19 tests available to schools nationwide, each month.
While the launch of the free home test kit site was announced to begin Wednesday, Jan. 19, orders were accepted on the site starting late Tuesday morning.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the site was in the “beta testing” stage and would still “be launched formally tomorrow morning [Wednesday].”
A note atop the website stated: “Covidtests.gov is up and running early so we can test the site before our official launch tomorrow. We have tests for every residential address in the U.S. Please check back tomorrow if you run into any unexpected issues.”
(See how many people have visited the COVIDtest.gov website.)