Partly cloudy. Low 64F. Winds light and variable..

Partly cloudy. Low 64F. Winds light and variable.

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) - SHIELD Illinois is opening a new community location for its free, saliva-based COVID-19 testing on Sept. 19 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Campus Recreation Center East.

The free PCR testing is a partnership between the Illinois Department of Public Health and SHIELD Illinois that utilizes federal funds.

The testing site will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at CRCE, 1102 W. Gregory Drive in Urbana. 

While the testing site is open to anyone, all University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students, faculty and staff who are required to test weekly may not use this location for compliance with that requirement. They must continue to use the testing site at the Illini Union.

For those receiving a test at CRCE, free parking is available at marked metered spaces along Dorner Drive on the south side of the facility. Community members should use CRCE’s east entrance, which faces Allen Hall. Multiple Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District buses serve CRCE.

Instead of an invasive nasal swab, the covidSHIELD test uses a saliva sample that takes just minutes to collect. Confidential results from SHIELD Illinois are available in 24-48 hours via email.

“We are grateful to our partners at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the cities of Champaign and Urbana, who have paved the way for this new location,” said SHIELD Illinois Managing Director Ron Watkins. “We have heard from numerous community members about the need for testing in Champaign-Urbana and we are glad to be able to provide this service.”

“Public access to COVID-19 testing is an important mitigation strategy,” said Julie Pryde, the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District’s public health administrator. “Sites like this play a vital role in the fight to keep our community safer by minimizing the potential for COVID-19 outbreaks.”

SHIELD Illinois is the University of Illinois System’s in-state, non-profit COVID-testing unit that uses the highly accurate saliva-based PCR covidSHIELD test that was developed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

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