URBANA, Ill. — A breakthrough saliva-based testing platform that tests University of Illinois students for COVID-19 has been granted an Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
The testing method, covidSHIELD, has been used to test on-campus students twice weekly at the university. It has been administered more than 1.5 million times at the Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield campuses.
“The University of Illinois has been a national leader in innovation for decades, and the campus’ groundbreaking work to develop rapid, saliva-based COVID-19 testing is but the latest example of that tradition,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
With the EUA, announced Monday, March 1, U of I is now able to expand covidSHIELD testing outside of its universities.