Free tests hot commodity

It’s the hottest consumer product being snatched up by city residents these days — the free COVID-19 test kits.

A “huge” 55% of pandemicweary Big Apple residents have already applied for the at-home tests from the US government Web site covidtests.gov, according to a survey of 2,500 respondents conducted by the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health.

That’s market penetration manufacturers would die for.

“I was shocked,” Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health, told The Post. “I didn’t expect that high a number ordering the at-home test. It’s a huge number.”

The poll is believed to be the first public survey in the US that measured how many people are ordering the rapid COVID at-home test kits.

Two-thirds of respondents who received a vaccine booster ordered the COVID test, according to the survey. By contrast, only about one-third of unvaccinated respondents said they ordered it.

“This is an indication of the vigilance of vaccinated individuals in containing the spread of the virus,” El-Mohandes said, adding it’s “disappointing” that so many unvaccinated people hadn’t sought out the free tests. “They should be more willing to get tested to contain the virus, not less.”