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Biden administration accepting COVID-19 test orders a day early

COVID-19 Metro ATL Trending

Biden administration accepting COVID-19 test orders a day early

Tracy Mau, RN takes a specimen at the DeKalb County Board of Health COVID-19 testing site located in the parking lot of The Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church in Atlanta, July 21, 2020. Photo by Dean Hesse.
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Atlanta, GA — The Biden administration launched the COVID-19 test kit website on Tuesday, a day before the website was set to officially launch.

Residential households can place one order per residential address. Each order contains four at-home rapid COVID-19 tests. Orders are placed through the United States Postal Service and will ship for free starting in late January.

When announcing this plan, the White House said more tests could be sent out in the future to each household, but it depends on supply. The White House also said “tests will typically ship within 7-12 days of ordering” through USPS, according to 11Alive.

To place an order, click here.

President Joe Biden announced several new steps to deal with COVID-19 and the highly contagious Omicron variant in December. Most notably, he announced the government will buy about a half-billion at-home COVID-19 test kits and mail them to people who would like them, according to NPR.

Officials had said people could begin placing orders on Wednesday, but White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said today that a “beta testing phase” of the website had gone live to test the system before the full rollout on Wednesday, 11Alive reported.

It is unknown where orders will continue to be accepted through the day, or if it will cut off at some point before the official launch tomorrow.

Psaki also said the administration anticipates there will be a “bug or two,” but has IT experts working to get the site ready.

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