Photo: nito (Shutterstock)
When the U.S. government announced in January that every household would be able to request four free tests, we noted that four tests don’t go very far. (My own household, for example, contains five people.) While that’s still true, the offering has doubled: You can now request a second order of tests.
The website where you can place your (free) order is covidtests.gov. A notice on that website now states that “starting this week,” every household can place a second order of free tests.
This means that if you already got yours, you can order again; but it also means that if you never got around to ordering them in the first place, you can now request two orders at once, for a total of eight tests.
This does mean eight (or four) individual tests—not boxes of tests. Many over-the-counter, at-home tests come in a double pack. That’s because a positive result is pretty reliable, but a negative result may mean that you just don’t have enough virus in your nose yet, or that you didn’t get enough snot on the sample. If you test negative, you’re supposed to repeat the test the next day to be sure.
I ordered my household’s four tests when the website first went live, and sure enough, what I got was a box containing four tests, total, from Roche. The government has reportedly bought tests from a variety of manufacturers, so you may get a different brand this time than last time, or a different brand than your neighbor. But the promised tests did show up.
Other ways to order
If you can’t access the website, or if you’d like to pass on the information to a less technologically inclined loved one, another way to request the tests is to call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489) between 8 a.m. and midnight ET any day of the week. Help is available in 150 languages, including English and Spanish.
There is also a special channel that prioritizes people with disabilities. You can call the Disability Information and Access Line at 888-677-1199 (Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET) or email DIAL@usaginganddisability.org. For more information on requesting and using at-home tests, this CDC page has all the details.
