CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will provide free on-campus COVID-19 walk-up testing to all faculty members, staff and students beginning this week.
News media interested in learning more about the university’s COVID-19 testing are invited to visit the testing tent located near the Alice Campbell Alumni Center – just north of the building, located at 601 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana – to observe the process on Tuesday, July 7 at 10 a.m. Martin Burke, the associate dean for research at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine and chair of the COVID-19 SHIELD: Target, Test, Tell team, will be available for interviews.
This is the only planned news media availability session for the university COVID-19 testing sites. For the privacy of all participants, the news media will not be permitted to enter the testing sites on other dates and times.
The sites will administer innovative saliva-based tests, a process developed by the COVID-19 SHIELD: Target, Test, Tell team. Unlike conventional nasal testing, saliva samples are collected noninvasively, without requiring skilled health care workers.
The university will open two testing sites this week: a tent site at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center and an indoor site at State Farm Center. More than a dozen on-campus sites will be added, with a goal to administer 10,000 tests per day by the first day of classes Aug. 24. Beginning Wednesday, free on-campus COVID-19 walk-up testing will be available to all faculty members, staff and students at both locations from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
COVID-19 testing site details:
- This walk-up testing is available only to university employees and students.
- Testing is free.
- Individuals should refrain from eating, drinking, tooth brushing, mouth washing, gum chewing and tobacco use for 30 minutes before submitting a saliva sample.
- Individuals will need to show an iCard or Illini ID.
- The saliva sample collection only takes a few minutes, and results are expected within 24 hours.
- Individuals should line up outside the site locations while wearing face coverings and practicing social distancing.
- Faculty members, staff and students will be notified via email when their results are available in the McKinley Health Center patient portal.
- The laboratory processing the samples has achieved the regulatory compliance necessary to perform high-complexity testing under federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments guidelines.
- As additional testing sites become available, updated hours and locations will be posted on the university’s COVID-19 website.
Editor’s note: Parking for the news media is available near the Alice Campbell Alumni Center in Lot D22. For additional information, contact Robin Kaler, associate chancellor for public affairs, 217-333-5010, rkaler@illinois.edu
