The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced Tuesday that people can place an order for Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests.

The order can be placed at https://special.usps.com/testkits and stipulates that:

* Only one order can be placed per residential address.

* One order comes with four individual rapid antigen COVID-19 tests.

* Will ship for free beginning in late January.

In related news, Highland County schools saw 68 new COVID-19 cases from Jan. 3-9 (the most recent data available), according to an ODH update that documents how each school in the county is faring with COVID-19 during the 2021-22 school year.

The last time The Times-Gazette reported on COVID-19 cases in county schools was from Dec. 27 to Jan. 2 when the schools saw eight new COVID-19 cases.

Following are the total number of COVID-19 cases each county school has had during the current school year as well as the number of new cases from Jan. 3-9:

* Bright Local Schools had five new student cases and one new staff case. It has had 54 total student cases and 12 total staff cases this school year.

* Fairfield Local Schools had four new student cases and two new staff cases. It has had 68 total student cases and 19 total staff cases.

* Greenfield Exempted Village Schools had 12 new student cases and six new staff cases. It has had 207 total student cases and 45 total staff cases.

* The Highland County Board of DD had no new student or staff cases, and has had no total student or staff cases so far this school year.

* The Hillsboro Christian Academy Preschool had three new student cases, but no new staff cases. It has had seven total student cases and three total staff cases.

* The Hillsboro Christian Academy Private School had no new student or staff cases. It has had four total student cases and three total staff cases.

* Hillsboro City Schools had 23 new student cases and eight new staff cases. It has had 154 total student cases and 40 total staff cases.

* Lynchburg-Clay Local Schools had no new student or staff cases. It has had 57 total student cases and 13 total staff cases.

* St. Mary Catholic Preschool had no new student or staff cases. It has had no total student or staff cases so far this school year.

* St. Mary Catholic Private School had one new student case and one new staff case. It has had five total student cases and two total staff cases so far this school year.

* Stonewall Academy had no new student or staff cases. It has had no total student or staff cases so far this school year.

Highland County is currently seeing 126 new COVID-19 cases per day, which is about 292 cases per 100,000 in population, according to The New York Times COVID Tracker, which was last updated on Tuesday.

In other news, Highland County’s COVID-19 case rate stood at 1,830.4 cases per 100,000 in population over the previous two weeks, according to the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Coronavirus Dashboard, which was last updated Thursday. The case rate was below the state average of 1,883.9 cases per 100,000 in population over the same period and ranks the county 36th among the state’s 88 counties in terms of the highest case rates.

In terms of vaccinations, Highland County is currently at 39.50 percent of the county’s residents that have started their vaccines, according to the ODH COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard which was last updated on Tuesday. The state average for starting vaccines is 60.85 percent.

In terms of completed vaccines, the state average is 55.82 percent, while the Highland County average is 36.11 percent.

The dashboard also said there have been 6,639 “third” doses administered in the county on or after Aug. 12, 2021, to people that were already fully vaccinated.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.