BOSTON — The federal government’s website to order free at-home test COVID kits officially launches Wednesday, but people were able to already place their requests Tuesday. The beta version of the site quietly went online Tuesday to test out any bugs, and there were issues.
People who live in apartments or multi-family homes were some who experienced problems trying to order the testing kits--getting an error saying that address already ordered them. The site asked that people check back the next day if they ran into any unexpected problems.
The new website, covidtests.gov, allows for each household to order up to four free test kits that will be shipped in 7 to 12 days. The site suggests ordering them now so that you’ll have the tests when you need them. The process is simple—you just enter your name, email and shipping address. But for some who live in apartments or multi-family homes, when they clicked on “place my order” a message instead came up saying the tests have already been ordered for this address and they are unable to process duplicate orders for the same address.
The US Postal Service said people experiencing problems should file a service request through emailus.usps.com/s/the-postal-store-inquiry or call 1-800-ask-usps
On top of the website, the federal government is also setting up a hotline to call to order the tests. More details about that are expected to come later this week.
Just as the federal government is getting ready to ship out millions of free at-home testing kits across the country, here in Massachusetts, we’re starting to see COVID case numbers drop.
The wastewater has been the predictor of where the cases are headed. Just last week the samples showed the levels started to go down and now the latest numbers show an even bigger drop.
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority checks for virus particles in wastewater samples several times a week. Numbers spiked to pandemic highs immediately following the holidays. But now those virus counts are dropping drastically, signaling the omicron surge might be ending soon. The governor was asked about this trend, which is exactly what happened in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
“It is a one of these is straight up and straight down and several people have written about this and said that this appears to be good news,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “One thing I would say about COVID generally is you just never know. But it certainly does look like we’re very much on the backside.”
The local case numbers also back up that data. Since Monday was a holiday, the state released the latest numbers from the last four days. More than 56,000 new cases were reported. That’s compared to more than 68,000 from last weekend which only covered three days. The 7-day positivity rate has dropped to 17%, down from 21% a week before. More than 3,000 people are still hospitalized and 47 new deaths were reported.
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