Free rapid at-home COVID tests: You can order a third round from the federal government — here’s how

This marks the third time that the U.S. government has made a push to send free rapid COVID tests out to Americans through the mail. People were able to order free tests from USPS for the first time in January 2022, and again in March 2022. Some people began sharing their test-kit orders on Twitter on Monday afternoon.

Every home in the U.S. is allowed to order these tests, regardless of whether the residents ordered tests during the previous rounds of availability, according to the COVID.gov site. This time around, there is an order limit of two orders per residential address. Each order consists of four rapid antigen tests, for a total of eight tests, according to the USPS website. Your order will come in two separate packages (with four tests in each package), each with its own tracking number, and the orders will ship for free.

During the previous COVID test order windows, the free tests typically shipped within seven to 12 days of ordering, according to the White House.

The Biden administration announced in December 2021 that it planned to distribute 500 million free test kits.

And the latest round of free rapid at-home tests comes as U.S. COVID are trending at the highest levels seen since late November. The U.S. is averaging 90,423 cases a day, which is up 60% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker. COVID cases are up in almost every state, and the Northeast and Midwest have seen a particularly substantial uptick in new cases.

The U.S. confirmed death toll from COVID-19 currently sits at 999,741, according to the John Hopkins University tracker, edging toward 1 million. The global death toll from the pandemic reached 6.2 million, and the World Health Organization has warned in recent months that the pandemic is not yet over.