WASHINGTON — The Biden administration’s new web site permitting individuals to order as much as 4 free at-home coronavirus assessments quietly went reside on Tuesday — a day prematurely of its formal launch — and demand already seemed to be vital.

A mixed complete of greater than 1 million guests have been on the house web page and the ordering web page of covidtests.gov at one level Tuesday night — greater than 40 occasions as many as have been on the federal government web site with the subsequent highest visitors, the U.S. Postal Service’s package-tracking web page, in accordance with analytics.usa.gov, which screens visitors on collaborating federal web sites.

At a White Home information convention on Tuesday, President Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, mentioned the official launch would happen on Wednesday morning, however that the location had begun taking orders throughout what she described as a “beta testing part” carried out by the U.S. Digital Service, the federal government’s expertise help division.

Additionally on Wednesday, the White Home will announce that it’s making 400 million “top quality,” nonsurgical N95 masks accessible, freed from cost, at neighborhood well being facilities and retail pharmacies throughout the nation. The masks might be launched from the Strategic Nationwide Stockpile, officers mentioned, calling the hassle the “largest deployment of private protecting gear in U.S. historical past.”

The 2 strikes present that the Biden administration is making an attempt to step up its coronavirus response because the extremely infectious Omicron variant drives a spike in instances throughout the nation. The administration at first resisted the thought of sending assessments to People’ properties, however it has now enlisted the U.S. Postal Service to deal with orders and deliveries.

Nevertheless it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the pilot testing revealed some obvious glitches.

Some individuals dwelling in condominium buildings mentioned they have been blocked from ordering assessments if different tenants had already put in requests for a similar constructing. Some who obtain their mail at publish workplace bins additionally reported confusion in ordering, as a result of the location features a disclaimer that claims orders would ship solely to legitimate residential addresses.

In a press release, the Postal Service mentioned the issues have been confined to “a small share of orders” and beneficial that prospects file a service request or contact the Postal Service assist desk at 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777).

Nonetheless, it was irritating for individuals who had issue ordering. Gina Lindo, 46, simply ordered 4 assessments for herself from the federal web site on Tuesday afternoon, requesting that they be despatched to her single-family house on Lengthy Island. However when Ms. Lindo tried to order assessments for her dad and mom, who reside in an condominium in Queens, she obtained an error message.

“Residence Covid-19 assessments have already been ordered for this deal with,” the message learn. “We’re unable to course of duplicate orders for a similar deal with.”

Ms. Lindo mentioned she had instantly known as her mom to ask if she had already ordered the assessments. She had not, however an upstairs neighbor had, they realized.

“They haven’t been in a position to get assessments, they’re offered out in every single place,” Ms. Lindo mentioned. “I do know it’s in all probability a line within the code on the USPS web site that must be modified, however I actually do hope that they modify it rapidly in order that we are able to order the assessments.”

Her mom teaches English as a second language at a senior heart as soon as every week, she mentioned, and desires to check recurrently for that cause. She and Ms. Lindo’s father, who’re each of their 70s, additionally hope to take house assessments earlier than their grandson’s upcoming sixteenth birthday celebration, and earlier than upcoming appointments with their medical doctors.

Mr. Biden has expertise with fumbled web site rollouts. When he was vice chairman, he and President Barack Obama presided over the disastrous launch of healthcare.gov, the net health-insurance market created by the Inexpensive Care Act. Jeff Zients, who’s now Mr. Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, was introduced in to rescue the troubled web site, which crashed repeatedly beneath a crush of early customers. The U.S. Digital Service was created in its aftermath.

Guests to covidtests.gov, which can be accessible in Spanish, can click on via to a Postal Service net web page the place they will order 4 assessments per family, freed from cost. Orders will normally ship in seven to 12 days, the web site says.

“We are able to’t assure there gained’t be a bug or two,” Ms. Psaki mentioned, “however the very best tech groups throughout the administration and the Postal Service are working arduous to make this a hit.”

Matching testing provide with demand has been a persistent problem for each the Trump and Biden administrations, and Mr. Biden has come beneath criticism for not ramping up the availability of fast at-home assessments rapidly sufficient as People struggled to get examined amid the emergence of the Omicron variant.

Specialists say there are three conditions wherein individuals ought to use at-home assessments: if they start to have signs of Covid-19; in the event that they have been uncovered to somebody who examined optimistic for the virus 5 or extra days earlier; or if they’re planning to assemble indoors with somebody at elevated danger from Covid-19, and wish to guarantee themselves they’re destructive.

However the Omicron variant has put an intense pressure on the availability of each laboratory and in-home assessments. Not lengthy after Thanksgiving, the fast assessments started rapidly disappearing off pharmacy cabinets, and there have been lengthy traces at clinics for polymerase chain response, or P.C.R., assessments.

The Biden administration responded by ordering a billion at-home assessments to present out free to the general public, in two 500-million batches. The second batch won’t be accessible till the spring, administration officers have mentioned.

The administration can be making free fast assessments accessible at neighborhood well being facilities and rural well being clinics. And as of Saturday, individuals with personal insurance coverage have been in a position to search reimbursement for assessments they buy themselves. Insurers might be required to cowl eight at-home assessments per particular person per 30 days, though some have mentioned it might take time to place the reimbursement system into place.