Mobile Coronavirus Testing Site Coming To ETHS Parking Lot

EVANSTON, IL — Free coronavirus testing will be available next week in Evanston to all residents, regardless of symptoms at a temporary Illinois Department of Public Health testing site.

Tests will be offered from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the parking lot of Evanston Township High School north of Lake Street and east of Dodge Avenue, according to city staff. About 500 tests can be performed each day at the state's mobile testing sites.

Residents can walk up or drive through. No proof of health insurance or U.S. citizenship is needed to get tested.

Viral testing samples at the mobile sites are conducted using nasal swabs. It takes at least four days and up to a week to get results, according to city staff.

State and local health officials recommend anyone who has potentially been exposed to someone with a confirmed coronavirus case to get tested.

The mobile testing sites arrival in Evanston comes a week after public health officials set it up in North Chicago and Zion.

Other nearby state-run, community-based drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites include one at 6959 W. Forest Preserve Road in Chicago, which is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, and another at Arlington Racetrack at 2000 W. Euclid Ave., which is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

There have been 1,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus among Evanston residents, according to its health department. Of those 72, or 7.2 percent, have died.

Last week, Evanston Hospital officials reported 11 patients hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 infections, while a representative of St. Francis Hospital said its critical care units were housing four patients.

There were just over three new cases a day detected on average during the month of August. As of Thursday afternoon, there were fewer than 50 active coronavirus cases among residents.

The seven-day moving average of per capita new cases is 27 per 100,000 residents, coming in well below a goal of 50 set by state public health officials, according to city staff.

That compares to 70 per 100,000 in Skokie, 95 per 100,000 in Chicago, 100 per 100,000 for Illinois as a whole and 112 per 100,000 in suburban Cook County.