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Health experts advise everyone order free COVID-19 tests from government website

The tests will take seven to 12 days to ship to your house, and you can only order four per household.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — You can now order free at-home rapid COVID-19 tests to your home through the federal government's new website covidtests.gov.

Five hundred million tests are available, but the White House says they will take seven to 12 days to ship to your house. You can only order four per household.

Residents on the First Coast are taking advantage of this.

"I actually have a reminder on my phone set up so that I will order the test," Annmarie Kelley said.

Kelley is all about getting ahead of COVID-19 symptoms. So is J.R. Duren.

"We get four which is not that many, but it's helpful nonetheless," Duren said. "So we'll, we'll sign up for it."

Whenever either of them come across a scarce at-home test, they buy one for when they or their family might need it.

"We sent our daughter back to in-person school this semester for the first time since March 2020," Duren said. "So we're like, OK, we need tests because we want to test her regularly just to make sure that she's okay."

Because the tests won't arrive at your home right away, First Coast News asked UF Health Epidemiologist Chad Neilsen what people should do if they need one.

"I think everybody really should go on to the website," he said. "Go ahead and order those tests."

Neilsen says if you have symptoms and can't find a test, assume you have COVID-19 and isolate and follow CDC guidelines.

The White House has been criticized for not getting these tests to people earlier, and the increase in COVID-19 cases is slowing in parts of the country. First Coast News asked Neilsen if the rapid test sign-up seems to be too little too late.

"We certainly wish we had these tests available to households four weeks ago when omicron wasn't surging, but we'll take what we can get now," he said. "With different parts of the country going through omicron at different stages, I still think they're going to provide tremendous value."

Florida Health Department data shows the COVID-19 case count still going up, but not as rapidly. 

Many hope the website to sign up for the at-home tests won't be as frustrating as the data.

"I'm curious if it's going to be smooth sailing," Kelley said.

She and Duren are ready for the sign-up.

"A lot of us just want to at least feel like we have access to testing," Duren said. "I think it brings us a lot of peace of mind and helps us parents at least, and even people without kids feel like we have some control over knowing the status of our health."

Private insurers are now required to cover the cost of up to eight at-home rapid tests per month per person.

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