Free COVID-19 Tests | Information for Students
What's the issue?
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is seeing a very limited cases of addresses that are not registered as multi-unit buildings; such as dormitories, sorority house, fraternity houses, and other congregate living facilities, which may cause COVID test kit ordering difficulties. Once one resident from the building orders a testing kit, the system deems the entire building (and the rest of the residents) ineligible to receive additional tests.
How do students in a residence hall/congregate living order free COVID tests?
The USPS is currently working on a fix for the system, but in the meantime they have provided a few tips that will help avoid issues in the ordering process:
- Students should submit their address through the order form (click on link below) as if we are sending regular mail to the dorms or congregate living. It's important to include specific room or apartment numbers as well as to use the ZIP Code plus four number.
- A useful tool to finding the ZIP Code plus four number is here: https://tools.usps.com/zip-code-lookup.htm?byaddress. Just enter the general address for the resident hall or shared living residence and it will provide the full mailing address in the USPS system.
- It is likely that only one student per room/suite will be able to request the at-home tests and should share with their roommates/suitemates.
What if I still encounter an issue?
You can seek assistance in the ordering process by:
- Filing a USPS service request at https://emailus.usps.com/s/the-postal-store-inquiry, or
- Contacting the USPS help desk at 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777).
More Information
Click on the link below to visit the official government site to learn more about the free at-home COVID tests.