Joliet Walmart Reaches Coronavirus Testing Capacity Quickly

JOLIET, IL — Just a day after becoming one of two sites in Illinois to offer COVID-19 testing to first responders and health care workers, the parking lot at the city's Walmart at 2424 West Jefferson St. reached its daily capacity on Monday morning not long after opening. The site, which conducted 70 drive-up tests on Sunday when it began offering the service for the first time, reached its limit before testing even began on Monday morning, Mayor Bob O’DeKirk announced at a press conference on Monday.

The testing site is currently one of three of its kind, with the others located in Northlake, a northwest Chicago suburb, and Bolingbrook, where testing began on Monday.

Each drive-through test takes 15 minutes to administer and testing begins daily at 10 a.m. O'DeKirk said that on Monday morning, the Joliet site had reached its limit about 90 minutes before the testing was scheduled to begin. The second Will County location, which is also limited to first responders and health care professionals, is located at 695 W. Boughton Road. The testing sites will operate from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., or until that site's daily limits have been reached.

O'DeKirk said the city has received requests that senior citizens displaying coronavirus symptoms be allowed to be tested at the location on West Jefferson, but that the Walmart site does not have the capability to extend the testing beyond first responders at time. First responders and health care professionals are required to provide a photo ID, along with proof that they are either a first responder or health care worker.

The Joliet Herald-News reported that cars began lining up at 7 a.m. Monday. There were approximately 40 cars in line with residents waiting to be tested when officials learned they had reached their daily limit.