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The Biden administration stealthily launched its website enabling Americans to obtain free COVID-19 tests at home on Tuesday, a day before the site was set to go live.
The website COVIDTests.gov now contains a link for Americans to access a USPS order form. The Postal Service will deliver four at-home exams per residential address. It is President Joe Biden’s latest move in response to criticism of low supplies and long lineups for testing after a statewide outbreak of COVID-19 infections caused by the omicron strain.
According to public government surveillance statistics, approximately 750,000 users were using the website at one moment on Tuesday, but it was unclear how many orders were submitted.
Psaki went on to say that the administration was expecting a “bug or two,” but that IT specialists from throughout the country were working to get the site up and running.
Last month, Biden stated that the US will buy 500 million at-home tests to kick off the programme, and on Thursday, Trump revealed that the order would be increased to 1 billion tests.
However, Americans should not expect requests to be fulfilled quickly, and they should plan ahead and seek tests well before they satisfy federal requirements for when to use a test.
“Tests will normally arrive within 7- 12 days of ordering,” according to the White House, citing USPS shipping times of 1-3 days for first-class packages in the continental United States.
Officials stressed that the federal website is only one route for consumers to get COVID-19 tests, and that shortages of at-home test kits are beginning to ease as more supplies arrive.
Private insurance companies have been obligated to cover the cost of at-home quick tests since Saturday, allowing Americans to be compensated for tests purchased from pharmacies and internet shops. Up to eight tests per month are included under this plan.
According to Alex Howard, director of the Digital Democracy Project, an open government watchdog group, 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 because it is so much simpler. The new website, according to Howard, is also easier to use than Vaccines.gov, which was introduced successfully by the Biden administration last year and allows users to identify nearby immunisation clinics and pharmacies.
According to Howard, asking someone’s address is a simple operation, especially when contrasted to the Obama-era health insurance website, which required users to compare health plans and authenticate a safe transaction. In the private sector, the obstacle of hosting a website application under heavy demand is likewise a “solved problem,” he noted.
“I expect the US Digital Service and any vendors they partner with to pull this off,” he said. “It’s the easiest part.”
Microsoft and Accenture, two software companies that commonly collaborate with the federal government, referred inquiries about the website to the Postal Service on Tuesday. Amazon, a key cloud supplier for government organisations in the United States, did not reply to calls for comment.
The most difficult aspect of the endeavour, according to Howard, is the physical distribution of kits, not the website.
He stated, “I can’t recall the last time the federal government issued something like this to everyone that wasn’t a tax document.”
Multiple people ordering from the same apartment building address is a likely difficulty, as is dealing with people who try to cheat the system by ordering too much.
“I’d like my fellow Americans to be a more trusting people,” Howard added, but “that’s not going to fly very well” given the ongoing controversy regarding COVID-19 protocols and response.
