Nearly a month after President Joe Biden first announced that Americans could order free rapid home COVID-19 tests from the government, the government’s website finally went live on Tuesday. But hours after the site launched, users struggled to place orders at homes or apartment buildings where other tenants may have already placed an order.
The magnitude of the problem is unclear at the time of publication, but White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said, “It’s a very small percentage and USPS will send our statement on this shortly.”
Users trying to order tests for multi-family homes and apartments seem to experience this problem the most. Once a user enters their information into the form, an error message is displayed stating that their order could not be placed.
“Our records show that home COVID-19 tests have already been ordered for this address. We cannot process duplicate orders for the same address,” reads the error page of the order site.
Last week, the White House issued a statement say users can call a hotline to order tests if they can’t access the website. “Free tests will be available to every household, and to promote broad access, the initial program will allow for four free tests per residential address to be requested,” the statement said.