The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) has announced its COVID-19 testing sites in Bloomington, Peoria and eight other locations will scale back to four days a week as demand has declined.IDPH said in a news release the agency plans to shift mobile testing staff from its community-based testing sites to locations that have higher demand for testing, including schools and processing plants.
Other sites cutting hours are in Arlington Heights, Aurora, Chicago, Waukegan, Champaign, East St. Louis, Harwood Heights and Rockford, said IDPH.
“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."
Drive-thru COVID testing at the Interstate Center in Bloomington will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The site at the Peoria Civic Center will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Currently, the Interstate Center is averaging less than 200 tests per day. At its peak in mid-November the site run by Pekin-based Reditus Labs was averaging more than 1,000 tests per day.
COVID testing also has expanded at other locations in that time, including pharmacies and Chestnut Family Health Center in Bloomington. The rapid antigen tests are available in the parking lot at Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington.
IPDH reports more than 7,250 COVID tests were conducted in McLean County the week of March 9-15.
The county’s seven-day positivity rate stands at 2.8%. That’s higher than the state average of 2.2%
Coronavirus - Testing Positivity Rate
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