USPS launches website for ordering free COVID-19 test kits

The new portal was launched Wednesday morning

The+federal+governments+new+program%2C+in+tandem+with+the+USPS%2C+will+make+COVID-19+testing+more+widespread+and+easily+accessible.

Nenad Stojkovic

The federal government’s new program, in tandem with the USPS, will make COVID-19 testing more widespread and easily accessible.

As the coronavirus pandemic nears the two-year mark, the United States Postal Service — in conjunction with the White House — has set up a new website where Americans can receive COVID-19 testing kits for free.

The site, COVIDtests.gov, allows users to place orders for up to four free COVID tests to be delivered right to their door — after a waiting period between seven and 12 days — beginning later this month.

According to the federal government, the tests distributed through the new initiative are the “FDA-authorized at-home rapid antigen tests.”

President Joe Biden’s administration purchased 500 million rapid testing kits last month as COVID-19 cases surge again all over the United States. Arizona continues to be hit hard, with CDC data reporting that the state has seen more than 140,000 new cases confirmed in the past seven days. The Arizona Department of Health Services reported over 20,000 new cases Wednesday morning, with 21 deaths. ADHS statistics also show that just over two-thirds — 67.4 percent — of Arizonans have been vaccinated.

However, good news could be around the corner. The executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association and the former director of the ADHS told KTAR earlier this week that the public health emergency could be drawing to a close.

“I think it’s going drop like a rock. Once the virus ends up infecting the last susceptible person, it’s got nowhere else to go except breakthrough (immunized people),” Will Humble said on Monday.