(CNN) — The brand new authorities web site the place individuals can order free Covid-19 at-home fast antigen checks is up and working. With simply names and addresses, households can go to COVIDtests.gov and request as much as 4 free checks to be delivered to their properties.
The web site comes on-line because the Biden administration faces rising strain to repair the coronavirus testing scarcity amid the Omicron surge. The White Home says it already has tens of tens of millions of checks able to go. It's spending $4 billion to ship the primary 500 million checks to properties throughout the US.
This system passes the testing strain to the US Postal Service, which says it’s ready to ship.
“We've got been working intently with the Administration and are nicely ready to just accept and ship take a look at kits on the primary day this system launches,” Postmaster Basic Louis DeJoy stated in an announcement.
However proper now, the Postal Service is going through issues, with communities in a number of states coping with mail delays due to Omicron.
As of Tuesday, greater than 19,200 postal employees had been both sick from Covid-19 or quarantining, simply shy of the company’s pandemic excessive final January and greater than twice as many as simply two weeks in the past, in accordance with the American Postal Staff Union.
Mail delays
Late final week, mail was delivered to Derek Reynolds’ Maryland residence for the primary time in practically three weeks.
“It’s a really bizarre and irritating scenario to have issues are coming however you simply don’t know when they're ever going to reach,” Reynolds stated. “I might be very nervous about getting a take a look at in any sort of well timed method.”
Final week, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton despatched a letter to the Postal Service elevating considerations about mail delays in DC and layoffs at USPS.
“There are households the place there was no mail delivered for days,” the DC Democrat stated. “If we are able to’t get the mail, how are we going to get these Covid checks?”
The Postal Service is now ramping up operations. It’s establishing 43 facilities that can pack and ship the checks and is hiring greater than 7,000 non permanent employees, lots of whom had been introduced on for the vacations, in accordance with the American Postal Staff Union.
USPS defended its service efficiency through the Omicron surge in a information launch final week, saying 90% of first-class mail had been delivered on time within the first week of January.
“The Postal Service’s mitigation plans proceed to carry out nicely,” the discharge states. It declined to supply CNN any additional remark or logistical plans.
Transport of take a look at kits
However even when all goes proper, don’t count on in a single day supply. The White Home predicts most checks will ship in seven to 12 days, and never till late January.
The Biden administration says the checks needs to be utilized in three conditions: if in case you have Covid-19 signs; no less than 5 days after publicity; or earlier than gathering indoors with unvaccinated individuals or these at increased danger for Covid-19.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious illness knowledgeable who's a part of the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is advising People to request the checks earlier than they want them.
“In the event that they wait till they've a difficulty, by the point the checks arrive, the optimum time for testing could nicely have handed,” Schaffner stated. “For those who’ve been uncovered and also you don’t have the checks accessible, you’ll have to seek out testing assets elsewhere.”
The-CNN-Wire
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