The closure of Bloomington's drive-thru COVID-19 testing site this Thursday means more traffic from Bloomington-Normal may come through the Peoria area's four community-based testing sites.
The four sites allow all adults to receive a nasal swab test, regardless of symptoms. Peoria City/County Health Department Administrator Monica Hendrickson said Heartland Health Services is confident it can handle more testing at its Peoria and Pekin test sites, which are open on differing days.
"They are within their capacity to do that. I mean today, they did close to 200. And that's because they've been able to get those resources from the state and other labs. And so, with that I think with that push over here that is a capacity that we can handle here locally," she said.
Only the East Bluff test site was open Monday.
Testing isn't reserved for locals only. The Peoria sites have attracted people from as far away as Chicago, Kewanee, and LaSalle.
"I think what we're realizing is we have the ability to do that testing, and the capacity between Heartland Health Services and their clinic's different locations can easily maneuver people through there," Hendrickson said.
The McLean County Emergency Management Agency announced the Bloomington COVID-19 testing site will close permanently this week in a Facebook post on Monday. The Bloomington site averages between 600 to 800 tests a week since opening in March. It has 250 tests available daily.
The federally-managed Bloomington's testing criteria are a bit tighter than the state-run test collection sites in Peoria.
Peoria's community-based testing sites began opening on April 27.
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