Less than a day after the Washington State Department of Health launched the site where residents could order free, rapid coronavirus tests to be sent to their homes, those tests were out of stock. The state said its inventory of about 650,000 testing kits ran out by about 6 p.m. Friday. The website, in English and Spanish, went live as the state continues to face high demand for tests.
“We anticipate people’s initial need in the test kits will exceed our current supply pretty quickly, but our focus is sharing what we have right now,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, the state’s deputy secretary for COVID-19 response. “We want to make sure the tests we have are in homes when our state needs testing the most — during this current surge.”
The Friday launch, funded by the state and in partnership with health care technology company CareEvolution and Amazon, is an expansion of a pilot program that has already delivered 800,000 tests in parts of Eastern Washington, the state said. The tests are approved under the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency-use authorization for those ages 2 and up.
Kits should arrive about one to two weeks after ordering, according to the site. In some parts of the state, residents also have the option of picking up tests locally, but the site urges people to call their local health department first to check.
Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said the state would get more tests in the coming weeks which Washington residents can order online. “We have about 650,000 tests today in hand that we can put out to be ordered and be ready to be shipped,” Shah said. “We are anticipating more tests to come in early next week, and then more even at the end of next week.”
The state has committed to buying 3.5 million at-home tests and distributing those to Washingtonians, but the DOH said that it wanted to get this initial shipment out as it waits for more orders, some of which have been delayed due to ongoing supply chain issues.
