A second Covid testing site has opened in DePaul’s Loop campus, providing more testing resources to DePaul students, faculty and staff.

The new site, which opened Jan. 18, is run by SHIELD Illinois, the University of Illinois System’s in-state, non-profit Covid-testing unit. The SHIELD-run testing is open to the public Tuesdays and Thursdays 4-7 p.m. on the lower level of the DePaul Center in the DePaul concourse.

The second site expands the testing hours into the afternoon and evening to better accommodate student schedules.

Morning testing is run by DePaul student workers trained by SHIELD. The DePaul-exclusive tests are available in the DePaul Center concourse on Mondays 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and Thursdays 9-11 a.m.

DePaul students, faculty and staff can make appointments at either site, while members of the general public can only make appointments for the SHIELD-run site.

To make an appointment during DePaul-only hours, DePaul community members must first fill out a waiver to let the service process their tests.

Students, faculty and staff can then make a SHIELD Portal account and enter the DePaul agency code found on the Covid-19 Testing resources page. The code for students is x2z7zqti-stu and the code for faculty and staff is x2z7zqti-emp. Using the code will unlock the available times in the Loop and Lincoln Park campuses.

To make an appointment during the SHIELD-run hours, use the agency code df5brbrj.

If you do not have time to make an appointment, walk-ins are accepted.

“You can make a walk-in, but it would be easier to have a SHIELD account and an appointment,” said Rutendo Chimbaru, DePaul’s temporary Covid Prevention and Response coordinator.

People with appointments must show their appointment confirmation QR code to submit their test. Walk-ins will follow the directions given by the workers.

According to Chimbaru, the DePaul-only testing site has been running smoothly. The Loop location gets about 50 people each day, whereas Chimbaru estimates 100 people get tested in Lincoln Park.

“People just stream in, it’s never super crowded,” Chimbaru said.

Once at the testing site, community members will be given a self-administered saliva-based PCR test. There are indicators on the sample tube marking how much saliva is needed.

According to Daniel Shute, a field-operations team lead with SHIELD, people should not eat, drink, chew or smoke for one hour before their appointment.

Testing results will be available approximately 24-48 hours after the test. According to Shute, SHIELD has one of the fastest lab results turnarounds excluding lab on-site testing locations.

There are seven SHIELD labs in Illinois located in Decatur, Itasca, Maywood, Normal, North Chicago, Rockford, and Springfield.

Test-takers can access their results by logging in to the SHIELD website with their username and password.

Like the DePaul-run site, Shute noted that the SHIELD-run site has been pretty quiet.

“So far, it’s not been super busy,” Shute said. “We’re in week two of the [Loop] community site. Most that test regularly go in the morning and go in Lincoln Park.”

SHIELD has the capability to complete “a few hundred tests” in the three-hour community time slot, Shute said. He is hoping more people take advantage of the free testing site.

DePaul students have been satisfied with the ease of the Loop testing site.

“I heard about [the Loop testing site] through a friend,” DePaul student Olivia Baczkowski said.

Baczkowski has been to both testing sites at DePaul. They said the Loop testing site was much easier to get through compared to the Lincoln Park site.

Other students echoed that sentiment.

“It was very quick and very easy,” said Kevin Ryczek, another DePaul student. “You can get out in a minute or two.”

Both Loop testing sites are free of charge. For more information about how to get tested at DePaul, visit DePaul’s Covid Resources page. If you are not sure whether you should get tested, visit CDC.gov for the current Covid guidelines.