The unlikely place to find COVID-19 tests at home

If you have tried to buy one at home COVID-19 test at a national pharmacy chain in recent weeks, you have probably struck. It does not get easier at first either, as schools welcome students back for personal learning while the Omicron variant continues to rise – increase the demand for regular testing and further strain on test supplies.

But some knowledgeable consumers have discovered it home COVID-19 tests are available from an unlikely source: Telemedicine company Ro. Launched in 2017, under the name Roman, the company billed itself as a men̵[ads1]7;s healthcare provider offering discreet treatments for conditions including erectile dysfunction and hair loss.

Powered by Omicron, the frequency of COVID-19 cases has increased across the United States, with positive case numbers reaching a peak since the beginning of pandemic. The average of seven days for new cases has risen to almost 340,000 from 187,000 a week ago, according to data from TD Securities.

As a result, all variants of home covid-19 tests on CVS Pharmacy’s website are sold out. Abbott’s BinaxNow kit, Quidel’s QuickVue home test kit, Orasure’s Inteliswab quick test kit and the FlowFlex version are also sold out on the Walgreen website.

Product Availability Tracker Nowinstock.net, which does the legwork for consumers, also indicates that almost all variants of home covid-19 tests are sold out in the expansive online store landscape. COVID-19 tests are currently among the hottest and most difficult to secure items, along with video game consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s Playstation and Nintendo’s Switch.

Visit the Ros website today, and you can purchase up to 12 packages of Intrivo Diagnostics On / Go COVID-19 fast antigen self-test kits per transaction. The only catch is that at $ 30 for two tests, the kits are slightly more expensive than currently unavailable variants, such as Abbott Labs’ BinaxNow antigen self-test kit, which when in stock, sells for $ 23.99 at CVS Pharmacy.

Ro co-founder and CEO Zachariah Reitano said the On / Go test kit was among the company’s top three most in-demand products and services during the holiday season. Unlike other health trusts, including pharmacies, it is confident in its ability to keep tests in stock and serve consumers through high periods.

“Our patients kept asking for tests, and we partnered with the manufacturers of the On / Go test to provide them,” Reitano said. “They have invested enormously in production capacity even though cases have ebbed and flowed into the potential case where it was a far more contagious variant that spread rapidly.”

Growth in distribution centers

Ro ended the year with 10 distribution centers across the United States, up from just three earlier in the year, enabling fast delivery of the time-sensitive tests.

“We got pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to come in during the holidays and work 12-18 hour days to make sure our patients got the COVID tests on time,” Reitano added. He also does not expect to run out of test kits right away.

While it’s expensive to send individual test kits for Ro, which pays for fast shipping and only profits when sending bulk tests, Reitano said the cost is worth it “to make sure people get it as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the test kits have helped Ro acquire many new customers that Reitano hopes will look to the company to meet their health needs as well. Ro now has a number of offers that extend beyond men’s sexual well-being and include fertility services, mental health care and diagnostic tests at home for men and women.

“We started offering the tests to our members and others who signed up,” Reitano said. “Hopefully they will look to us when we add new products and services and know that they are getting reasonable prices, and we do not want to take advantage of any moment.”