Elmhurst Virus Testing Site Closes For Week

ELMHURST, IL — An Elmhurst coronavirus testing site closed for a week starting Friday, along with all the other branches in the Center for Covid Control. This comes as regulators around the country are bearing down on the organization.

In a statement Thursday, Rolling Meadows-based Center for Covid Control acknowledged the operational strain on customer access and delivery of results at some locations. It said it would retrain staff and roll out new procedures to meet unprecedented demand.

The site in Elmhurst, 590 S. York St., has drawn more than 100 reviews on Google, giving it a rating of 4.1 stars out of 5.

Despite the majority of positive reviews, some people say the business was slow in returning results. They said they were promised results within one to three days, but the site took days longer than that to get answers back.

In response to that criticism, the organization said its lab had received an "extraordinary" influx in COVID-19 tests, saying it was "slightly" backed up.

The Center for Covid Control operates about 300 sites across the United States, and officials have issued warnings about sites in other states.

On Thursday, health officials in Massachusetts issued cease-and-desist notices for a number of Center for Covid Control sites. Health officials discovered the company was operating without a license to operate clinical laboratories in Massachusetts.

In Oregon, the state Department of Justice has received at least a dozen complaints about the company, including questions on how tests are handled and concerns about whether test results sent to patients were based on actual lab results.

Additionally, the Oregon Health Authority says that it has received no test results from the company, despite a law requiring them to be passed along to state or local health agencies.

Washington and California also have opened investigations.

In Illinois, the state says it does not regulate coronavirus testing locations that have no labs on site.