Need Free Covid Tests? Federal Website To Order Them Is Up And Running

@reuters
Need Free Covid Tests? Federal Website To Order Them Is Up And Running

Covid Home tests

photo via @Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's new COVIDTests.gov website, set up for American households to order four free COVID-19 tests amid the Omicron variant surge, is up and running ahead of its official launch on Wednesday, the White House said.

U.S. households can secure four tests at no cost when ordering from the website, with shipping expected within seven to 12 days of ordering, the White House said on Friday.

President Joe Biden has pledged to procure 1 billion free tests for Americans, and more may be ordered in the future.

His administration has come under criticism for not focusing on testing sooner. Americans waited in long lines for tests over the holidays amid a shortage.

The administration and the U.S. Postal Service have sought to avoid any major glitches in the new website like those that overshadowed the rollout of healthcare.gov, the website for President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

"We can't guarantee there won't be a bug or two, but the best tech teams across the administration and the Postal Service are working hard to make this a success," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday. "It will officially launch tomorrow morning. It's in the beta testing phase right now."

Psaki noted that the U.S. Digital Service, which she said was founded after the plagued rollout of healthcare.gov, has been supporting the Postal Service with the site.

More than 700,000 people were accessing COVIDtests.gov at one point on Tuesday, according to the Digital Analytics Program.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Moms For Libertine! And Why We Will Never Run Out Of Pious Frauds

Bridget Ziegler

It’s gotten to where it’s almost axiomatic in American politics: Show me somebody who gets TV face-time railing against others’ sexual sins, and I’ll show you somebody hiding naughty secrets. The latest example is an amusing scandal involving “Moms for Liberty,” the Florida-based right-wing organization that made its name by publicizing what this column described as “queers under the bed and the preposterous idea that the nation’s public-school librarians and grade-school teachers are plotting the sexual subversion of small children.”

Keep reading...Show less
Donald Trump
Photo by The White House

The latest ad from The Lincoln Project is titled “Feeble,” and it strings together a collection of Donald Trump’s “greatest hits” when it comes to stumbling over words, lurching around the podium, and repeatedly forgetting that Barack Obama is no longer president. While showcasing Trump’s two-handed efforts to sip from a water bottle and his running into the backdrop of a rally stage, the narrator asks questions like “Are you sure you don’t have dementia?” She also whispers that “[i]t runs in the family.”

Keep reading...Show less
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://log.nordot.jp/js/beacon-1.1.0.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> nor.pageviewURL = "https://log.nordot.jp/pageview"; nor.setPageData({ opttype: "unknown", pagetype: "detail", conttype: "post", uiid: "e_S481RqwJFu", postid: "856268461347389440", contdata: { title: "U.S. website to order free COVID-19 tests up and running", numimg: 1, cvrimg: 0, pubdate: "1642537301", chlang: "en-US" }, chunitid: "721958051058909184", cuunitid: "731904312584683520" }); nor.pageview(); </script>