The COVID-19 testing site at the Interstate Center in Bloomington won’t close this week after all.
Reditus Labs of Pekin announced on Thursday the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) decided that community-based testing sites — including the site at the Interstate Center—- will remain open, citing a rise in coronavirus cases, "significant concerns" about the highly contagious Delta variant and the need for additional testing.
IDPH initially planned toshut down the testing site on July 31 as the number of daily tests dropped from a peak of about 1,300 last fall to about 30 per day over the last two months, according to Reditus CEO Dr. Aaron Rossi.
Rossi said the site will remain open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
“We are, however, evaluating a potential location change in McLean County due to cost and disruption of our processes as more events are taking place at the fairgrounds,” Rossi said.
Reditus noted 10 out of 127 tests conducted Wednesday at the fairgrounds came back positive. That’s a testing positivity rate of nearly 8%. The county’s rolling seven-day average is 3.1%
