March 17, 2021 – In an effort to make one of the largest COVID-19 testing infrastructures in the country more easily accessible for residents, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is fine tuning its targeted mobile testing operations. This is in response to a decline in the number of people utilizing state-supported testing sites and in preparation for the next phases of the pandemic response. IDPH is realigning its testing strategy to deploy mobile testing teams to locations with a high demand for testing, such as schools, processing plants, high-risk workplaces, and other targeted locations.
“By focusing on taking testing to where people are, we hope to increase the number of people being tested for COVID-19,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “Testing is important to quickly identify individuals with COVID-19 to stop further spread of the virus. Our test positivity rate is currently low, and one way to keep it low is to identify infected individuals as quickly as possible so contact tracing efforts can identify close contacts who may have been exposed and have them quarantine so the virus does not spread further.”
Due to changes in public demand, the days of operation for the State community-based testing sites are being adjusted. These changes will go into effect on Thursday, March 18, 2021.
