Arlington mother creates website to help track down at-home COVID test kits

ARLINGTON, Mass. — Her face is likely familiar – Boston 25 News first introduced you to software developer Olivia Adams last year when she launched a website to help people find COVID-19 vaccine appointments back in the early days when they were filling up fast.

Now, the Arlington mother-of-two has launched another website to help people find over-the-counter rapid COVID-19 tests: CovidTestCollab.com.

“It’s been really rough for people to find rapid tests recently, which is why I started this project,” Adams said.

While Adams is the mastermind behind the project, she said its success relies on community participation. ”It will show you based on your location what sites have tests, and the data is all reported by our users,” Adams said. “If you go onto the website and you know that the Walgreens down the street does have tests or if they don’t have tests, you can type that in and it will show right up on the website.”

Adams said the more people who participate and log data, the more beneficial the website will be for people looking to buy at-home COVID-19 tests.

“It’s completely contingent on how many people come to this website and submit their data,” Adams said. “If you can make it part of your daily routine when you go to the pharmacy for whatever you need or you go to another store that has rapid tests, check the stock and just put it quickly on the website. It will continue being useful for as long as we are worried about where there are rapid tests around.”

Adams said the website currently only displays where over-the-counter COVID-19 tests are available, but she hopes to expand it to include information on PCR and practitioner-administered testing appointments as well.

She said the website works anywhere and could be used worldwide. Adams created her website at the same time the Biden administration launched a government website allowing people to order four at-home COVID-19 tests per household. While the rollout has been seamless for many, some people who live in multi-family homes and apartment buildings are reporting issues confirming their order.

The United States Postal Service released a troubleshooting page to help people who get error messages such as, “we couldn’t validate your address” or " at-home COVID-19 tests have already been ordered for this address”.

Adams said it’s good the government is trying to help, but she believes more needs to be done. ”I think if it went far enough, people wouldn’t be using my website,” Adams said. “I think that it’s great that the government is doing this, it’s long overdue, but for me, four tests isn’t enough. We have four people in our household so if it were just me then that would be great, but we need more tests and we need them now, so that’s what this website is built for.”

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW

©2022 Cox Media Group