Now there’s no reason not to get tested.
West Virginians now have access to free in-home COVID testing, paid for by the State of West Virginia, Governor Jim Justice announced on December 2. Here’s how it works:
- Click here to request your test kit from Vault Health. The fee will be waived when your West Virginia mailing address is entered. The kit will be sent by expedited shipping—Friday evening and weekend orders ship on Mondays.
- When you’re ready to test, don’t eat, drink, or chew gum for a half hour. Then log into your Vault account to collect the saliva sample under the guidance, via Zoom, of a test supervisor.
- Attach the enclosed return overnight shipping label and drop it off at the nearest drop-off location.
- Check your email! Test results arrive by email notification 48 to 72 hours after the sample arrives at the laboratory.
Note that this test will not tell you if you’ve ever had COVID-19—it will only tell you if you are infected at the time the sample is collected.
State officials expect that Vault Health will be able to meet the demand and hope residents will take advantage of the offer. “We’ll roll this out and see how it goes over the next week or so,” state Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch said at the December 2 briefing. “At some point we might have to cap it, but we hope not. We want to be able to test anyone who wants a test.”