SHIELD Illinois news

IDPH to offer free covidSHIELD tests for public schools for 2022-23 school year

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 14:00:00 CDT

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced a renewed agreement with SHIELD Illinois that offers every public school outside of Chicago the opportunity to use the University of Illinois System’s innovative, saliva-based COVID-19 testing platform at no cost for the 2022-23 school year.

SHIELD program a model for effective pandemic management, data show

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 09:00:00 CDT

A new paper in the journal Nature Communications details the innovations in modeling, saliva testing and results reporting of the SHIELD program that helped mitigate the spread of the virus at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the surrounding community.

SHIELD has been deployed in schools and communities across the state through the U of I System's SHIELD Illinois unit, and around the world through the university-related organization Shield T3.

SHIELD Illinois opens two free COVID testing sites in Chicago

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Tue, 17 May 2022 15:15:00 CDT

SHIELD Illinois opened two additional free community testing sites in Chicago this month, bringing its total number of locations statewide to 44. The sites are located at Northeastern Illinois University’s locations in the Bronzeville and El Centro neighborhoods.

COVID spit tests may be more accurate and easier than nasal swabs

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 10:30:00 CDT

An article in Scientific American discusses how saliva PCR tests developed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and others may detect infections earlier in the course of an infection.

ISU students, faculty and staff contribute to massive testing effort

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 08:45:00 CDT

Illinois State University's COVID-19 testing lab is part of the University of Illinois System's SHIELD Illinois network and conducts tests on saliva samples from its community along with local community colleges, school districts and employers in the Bloomington-Normal area.

Inside the massive SHIELD testing operation

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 10:00:00 CST

WTTW visited the SHIELD Illinois testing site at the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora and one of the SHIELD Illinois labs in North Chicago recently to take a look inside the massive operation.

Spit Equity

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 08:00:00 CST

Chicago Magazine—University of Illinois mobile labs scattered across the country can process up to 10,000 COVID-19 tests a day, with a turnaround of often under 12 hours. The testing medium? Not nasal swabs, but vials of spittle.

SHIELD Illinois spreads across Illinois, providing more testing sites

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 08:30:00 CST

The program SHIELD Illinois, which originated at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in fall of 2020 to provide efficient saliva-based testing to students and faculty, has now expanded all across Illinois.

SHIELD Illinois launches free testing site at DePaul's Loop Campus

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 16:30:00 CST

SHIELD Illinois, the University of Illinois System’s in-state, non-profit COVID-testing unit, is partnering with DePaul University and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) to launch a free community testing site at DePaul’s Loop Campus.

CDC endorses Test to Stay strategy piloted by IDPH, SHIELD Illinois

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 08:15:00 CST

A new CDC report published today confirms that the Test to Stay program, created locally by IDPH and operated by SHIELD Illinois, can help keep kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) students in the classroom.

How some schools are using weekly testing to keep kids in class

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 10:30:00 CDT

This NPR story features Hillside school, who is using SHIELD Illinois COVID-19 saliva testing for their students.

More than 1,200 Illinois K-12 Schools have signed up for SHIELD testing

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 10:15:00 CDT

More than 1,200 K-12 schools across the state have signed up to use the SHIELD Illinois COVID-19 saliva test for the start of the 2021-22 academic year. More than 650,000 students in Illinois will now have access to the test.

Illinois K-12 public schools can access free SHIELD Illinois COVID-19 testing

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 10:45:00 CDT

The llinois Department of Public Health announced that it has expanded access to free COVID-19 testing to al K-12 public schools across Illinois outside of Chicago, which received its own funding.

CDPH to utilize innovative covidSHIELD test in select city schools

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 10:45:00 CDT

The University of Illinois System today announced that it will begin providing its innovative saliva-based covidSHIELD test to select K-12 Chicago schools through funding from the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Community colleges in Illinois now have option to provide free covidSHIELD tests to state residents

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 10:45:00 CDT

Community colleges across the state now have the ability to provide the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s innovative, saliva-based COVID-19 test at no cost to any state resident who wants one.

Rivian donates $500,000 to support SHIELD Illinois testing

gyordy@illinois.edu (Gretchen Yordy) — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 10:00:00 CDT

The University of Illinois System received a $500,000 donation from Rivian to support the recently opened SHIELD Illinois COVID-19 testing lab at Illinois State University, which is located within five miles of the electric automaker’s factory in Normal.