Big crowds on first day of COVID-19 testing facility in Aurora
A fourth state-run drive-through COVID-19 testing facility opened Thursday morning in Aurora to a long line of vehicles and reached capacity in just 4½ hours.
Aurora police said drivers in 97 cars and trucks were waiting to get tested when the facility officially opened at 8 a.m. at the Chicago Premium Outlets mall, just north of I-88 at Farnsworth Avenue.
Authorities closed the site and stopped allowing more vehicles to enter by 12:45 p.m. because the facility had reached its capacity of 600 specimens a day. It took hours to finish testing everyone who was waiting in line.
Police spokesman Paris Lewbel said the average wait to get tested was about 2½ hours.
The Aurora site is available to anyone with COVID-19-like symptoms, such as coughing and shortness of breath, and a doctor's permission is not required.
All health care workers and first responders can get a test regardless of symptoms, officials said.
Despite the large number of vehicles, Lewbel said there were no traffic issues on the roads around the mall.
"Everything is within the mall's property," he said. "It was always designed so it would take traffic off the main road and then put it inside the mall."
Vehicles must enter the property from Farnsworth Avenue and use the ring road to reach the testing site, which is south of Bilter Road.
All the tests are self-administered swabs, officials said. So each person getting tested is handed the swab and directions through their car window. They then must swab their own nose and place the swab back in the bottle.
Once the test is completed, they leave using the exit at Bilter.
Testing is free and done on a first-come, first-served basis.
The facility opens daily at 8 a.m. and closes by 4 p.m. or when testing capacity is reached.
Operations at the site are managed by the Illinois National Guard with traffic management and security assistance from Aurora police.
Mayor Richard Irvin said in a statement that he's proud to see a testing site in the state's second largest city.
"Testing is a key step to preventing the community spread of COVID-19 we are experiencing in Illinois and throughout the country," Irvin said. "Aurora is proud to partner with the state of Illinois and the Illinois National Guard to host this site right here in our community."