Western Illinois University Partners with U of Illinois to Provide SHIELD Illinois Tests
Beginning Monday, March 15, Western Illinois University will begin offering to Macomb faculty, staff and students the SHIELD Illinois fast-turnaround saliva-based COVID-19 tests created by the University of Illinois.
“While we have had great success with our nasal and saliva based tests that we’ve used since the Fall 2020 semester, we’re proud to collaborate with the University of Illinois to provide a new test option to faculty, staff and students that was created by one of our Illinois 
public higher education partners,” said Joe Roselieb, executive director of auxiliary services and risk management at WIU.
Walk-in test clinics for WIU faculty, staff and students at the Macomb campus will be open from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Friday in the University Union Sandburg Lounge (lower level – north entrance). The CRL saliva test kits will continue to be used on the WIU-QC campus. These can be picked up and returned in Riverfront Hall.
The SHIELD test requires individuals to deposit a small amount of saliva in a vial, which usually takes less than five minutes. The test will provide results within 24 hours of samples reaching a SHIELD Illinois Lab. Participants will receive an email with their negative test results and a phone call with positive results.
According to Roselieb, through the SHIELD program, Western will receive several thousand COVID-19 tests at no cost, and the collection of the tests will be more streamlined. In addition, the saliva-based test has a specificity rate of 99 percent, with very few false positives, which Roselieb pointed out makes the SHIELD test “extremely accurate.”
For more information, visit wiu.edu/coronavirus.
