Coronavirus response | Free group testing web site opens on UI campus | Coronavirus

URBANA — A free group COVID-19 saliva testing web site is up and working inside a College of Illinois leisure facility.

SHIELD Illinois, an initiative which makes use of federal funds to unfold the UI’s saliva-based PCR assessments statewide, has opened a brand new weekday clinic on the Campus Recreation Middle East on 1102 W. Gregory Drive.

Testing is out there for everybody, 7:30 a.m. to five:30 p.m., Monday by way of Friday. Appointments are inspired by way of the hyperlink shieldillinois.com/get-tested, however walk-ins are accepted.

For the reason that web site opened on Monday, greater than 100 individuals have gotten their outcomes, stated SHIELD Illinois spokesman Ben Taylor.

“That’s fairly excessive visitors at this level on the pandemic,” he stated. “It’s a kind of occasions of the 12 months the place you don’t know what you may have — whether or not it’s allergic reactions or one thing else.”

Check outcomes return inside a day; the standard turnaround is 12 to 13 hours. Sufferers can choose to obtain their outcomes by way of textual content, e-mail or by way of the SHIELD Illinois app.

Testers can enter the positioning, which makes use of a multipurpose room inside CRCE, by following the indicators on the east aspect of the constructing dealing with Allen Corridor. Face coverings are required.

The CRCE location is the thirteenth group testing web site helmed by SHIELD Illinois, Taylor stated. The group additionally runs COVID-19 testing for greater than 600 Okay-12 colleges this 12 months.

SHIELD Illinois beforehand ran a testing web site from the Stephens Household YMCA till the tip of June. SHIELD CU, the UI’s testing partnership with OSF Healthcare, administered assessments from CRCE till Could, and from Parkland Faculty till June.

“We began speaking with campus management about what do we have to do and the place testing may be positioned, and so they had been capable of finding the area in CRCE,” Taylor stated. “We felt like we heard from plenty of group members during the last couple months that they wished a web site on the town, that they need to have the ability to get a check after they want one.”

The Illinois Division of Public Well being distributes funds from funds from the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan to maintain the free testing going.

“Public entry to COVID-19 testing is a vital mitigation technique,” stated Julie Pryde, the Champaign-Urbana Public Well being District’s public well being administrator. “Websites like this play an important position within the combat to maintain our group safer by minimizing the potential for COVID-19 outbreaks.”

Disclaimer: Unvaccinated College of Illinois college students and employees can’t use the CRCE group web site to meet their once-a-week campus testing requirement. They have to check on the Illini Union.

On Monday morning, there have been 273 energetic instances of COVID-19 in Champaign County, together with 16 hospitalizations for the illness. Champaign County has confirmed greater than 80,000 instances of the virus for the reason that pandemic started.