The Biden administration rolled out an online program on January 18 to order free at-home COVID tests a day ahead of schedule.
As per the USPS website, where orders are being taken, “[r]esidential households in the U.S. can order one set of 4 free at-home tests from USPS.com.”
According to USPS, people signing up are limited to one order per residential address, and it include four individual rapid antigen COVID-19 test. Orders will ship free starting in late January and will ship within 7-12 days of ordering.
A White House press statement noted that there are ways to get help for people having trouble with online ordering. “To ensure equity and access for all Americans the Administration will also launch a call line to help those unable to access the website to place orders.” Biden’s administration will also “work with national and local community-based organizations to support the nation’s hardest-hit and highest-risk communities in requesting tests.”
Just last month, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki received major backlash for sarcastically implying that the Administration could not administer free tests to every household.
In a viral exchange, no pun intended, NPR reporter Mara Liasson asked about the possibility of mailing out tests. “Why not just make ’em free and give ’em out, make them available everywhere?” Liasson asked Psaki. “Should we just send one to every American?” Psaki retorted.
The interaction then led to a major policy change. As the Intercept reported, “Once the administration became aware of the depth of anger in the country at the more limited testing policy Psaki struggled to defend, it was in Biden’s political interest to change course and adopt a more popular policy — which is essentially the one Liasson had suggested.”
Last week, as per the White House statement, “the Administration also announced that starting January 15th, 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.”