As COVID-19 cases in the area have continued to surge, the wait time for results from tests performed at the state-sponsored drive-thru site at Market Place Mall has doubled.
Earlier in the fall, the average wait time to get results from tests done at the mall site was about two days. Now it’s about four, according to Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Administrator Julie Pryde.
The reason for the longer wait is increasing cases — and it’s “too long,” she said.
The longer the wait for test results, the longer potentially infected people could still be out in public spreading the disease rather than staying home and away from other people.
In Champaign County alone, 598 new cases have been added from Oct. 29 to Wednesday — 231 of them on in the previous two days, according to the health district.
As of Nov. 2, Region 6, which includes Champaign and surrounding counties, had a seven-day average positivity rate of 10 percent.
Tests done at the state-sponsored drive-thru site in Champaign were being sent to the local Carle lab, but the Illinois Department of Health recently switched to Reditus Laboratories in Pekin.
Reditus is one of two labs handling tests for the state’s 11 community testing sites, all of which offer testing for all regardless of symptoms. Reditus also handles tests for the state’s drive-thru testing site in Bloomington, according to Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the state health department.
The change occurred after previous contracts ended, she said.
How many coronavirus tests are being handled by Reditus per day was unknown. The company didn’t return a call from The News-Gazette on Thursday.