The unlikely place to find COVID-19 tests

If you've tried to purchase an at-home COVID-19 test at a national pharmacy chain in the past few weeks you've likely struck out. It won't get any easier anytime soon, either, as schools welcome students back for in-person learning while the Omicron variant continues to surge — fueling more demand for regular testing and further straining test supplies.

But some savvy consumers have discovered that at-home COVID-19 tests are available from an unlikely source: Telemedicine company Ro. At its inception in 2017, under the name Roman, the company billed itself as a men's health care company providing discreet treatments for conditions including erectile dysfunction and hair loss.

Driven by Omicron, the rate of COVID-19 cases has swelled across the U.S., with positive case numbers reaching their peak since the beginning of the pandemic. The seven-day average of new cases has soared to nearly 340,000 from 187,000 a week ago, according to data from TD Securities.