How to order free rapid covid tests from the US government — again

Image: Mitchell Clark / The VergeWinter is here, and once again, warnings are going up about the spread of the covid-19 virus — along with the flu and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus. To try to minimize the upsurge,...

Kass Kass
Dec 15, 2022 - 21:02
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How to order free rapid covid tests from the US government — again

Winter is here, and once again, warnings are going up about the spread of the covid-19 virus — along with the flu and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus. To try to minimize the upsurge, the US government is restarting a program that it canceled on September 2nd, 2022, and is once again offering free home rapid antigen tests to each US household. This is the fourth round of free tests that’s been made available; according to the government website, orders will start shipping the week of December 19th.

As before, it’s extremely simple to put in your order. You will not need to submit a credit card or any other financial information.

Go to COVIDTests.gov.Tap on the button reading Order Free At-Home Tests. If you don’t see the button for any reason, you can go directly to the USPS site (which is where the button would send you anyway) at special.usps.com/testkits. Fill in your name, email address (if you want to receive notifications), and shipping address.Click on the green Check Out Now button.A pop-up window will ask you to confirm your contact information and shipping address. If everything is correct, click on the green Place My Order button — and you’re done! You’ll get an order number and (if you entered your email address) a confirmation email with that number, along with (hopefully) updates on delivery.

Web page from USPS headed “Place Your Order for Free At-Home COVIDp19 Tests” with a photo of hands holding a test and instructions for ordering.

The page for ordering tests also offers information on whether your old tests have really expired.

By the way, if you’ve ordered tests in the past, you may want to click on the link to check to see if those tests have really expired. Apparently, the shelf life of some of those tests has been extended by the FDA.

And as before, if you have private health insurance, you can be reimbursed for up to eight tests per month; free tests are also available to Medicare and Medicaid recipients. You can check the US Department of Health and Human Services site for more info.