Here’s how to order COVID-19 rapid-test kits starting Wednesday

WASHINGTON — A government website intended to allow Americans to order rapid-test COVID-19 tests kits for free is expected to launch Wednesday morning, though a soft launch a day earlier revealed there still may be glitches to work out.

The website, COVIDTests.gov, includes a link for Americans to access an order form run by the U.S. Postal Service. People can order four at-home tests per residential address, to be delivered by the Postal Service. The test are rapid antigen tests — not PCR — and can give results within 30 minutes without a lab.

It marks the latest step by President Joe Biden to address criticism of low inventory and long lines for testing during a nationwide surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant.

However, because it will take days — a week or more — to order a kit, federal officials were encouraging people in need of being tested right way to find tests close to home.

In Iowa, free Test Iowa PCR kits can be ordered in advance; picked up to take home from certain locations; picked up and dropped off at others; and some locations offer quicker service:

For other options on how to access the Test Iowa program, visit testiowa.com for details. Or, call 1-833-286-8378 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

‘Bug or two’ on website

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday the website was in "beta testing" and operating at a "limited capacity" ahead of its official launch. The website will officially launch midmorning Wednesday, she said.

There were isolated reports Tuesday afternoon of issues relating to the website's address verification tool erroneously enforcing the four-per-household cap on apartment buildings and other multiunit dwellings, but it was not immediately clear how widespread the issue was. She said the administration was anticipating a "bug or two," but had experts from across the government working to get the site ready.

At points Tuesday more than 750,000 people were accessing the website at the same time, according to government tracking data.

Biden announced last month that the United States would purchase 500 million at-home tests to launch the program, and last Thursday announced he was doubling the order to 1 billion.

But Americans shouldn't expect a rapid turnaround on the orders, and they will have to plan ahead and request the tests well before they meet federal guidelines for when to use a test.

The White House said "tests will typically ship within 7-12 days of ordering" through USPS, which reports shipping times of one to three days for first-class parcels in the continental United States.

Officials emphasized that the federal website is just one way for people to procure COVID-19 tests.

Since Saturday, private insurance companies have been required to cover the cost of at-home rapid tests, allowing Americans to be reimbursed for tests they purchase at pharmacies and online retailers. That covers up to eight tests per month.

The technical bugs that embarrassed President Barack Obama's administration with the 2013 rollout of the HealthCare.gov website should not be a problem for the COVID-19 test kit website in part because it is so much simpler, said Alex Howard, director of the Digital Democracy Project, an open government watchdog group. Howard said the new website is also simpler than the Vaccines.gov website — for finding nearby vaccine clinics and pharmacies — that was already successfully launched by the Biden administration last year.

Two tech companies that frequently work with the federal government — Microsoft and Accenture — on Tuesday referred questions about the website to the Postal Service. Amazon, a major cloud provider for U.S. agencies, didn't respond to requests for comment.

Howard said the trickiest part of the project is not the website, but the physical distribution of kits.

"I don't recall the last time the federal government sent something like this to everyone that wasn't a tax document," he said.