Get A COVID Test Kit With Your Books At These Local Libraries

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Neighbors in Forest Hills can pick up a COVID testing kit with their library books as of this week.

Two local Queens Public Library Branches, one in Rego Park and another in Kew Gardens Hills, are handing out the testing kits as part of a citywide initiative to make COVID testing more widely available.

"Distributing at-home tests at cultural sites and libraries provides familiar, prominent locations for people to pick up the resources they need to know if they have COVID-19," said Dr. Ted Long, executive director of the NYC Test and Trace Corps, which is sponsoring the initiative alongside library branches and cultural institutions across the five boroughs.

With coronavirus levels dropping across the city, Long also hopes that testing prompts New Yorkers to safety return "to the beloved destinations that make our city so special."

The kits, which include rapid COVID tests, will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last, and are limited to one per person.

Distribution at the Rego Park and Kew Gardens Hills library will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, and noon to 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Kits will also be handed out at the Kew Gardens Hills branch from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday starting on March 6.

Learn more about the initiative here.