Chambana Sun

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the University of Illinois System (U of I) an Emergency Use Authorization for its homegrown saliva-based COVID-19 test, covidShield, to be used outside of the university’s system.

covidSHIELD, developed by a team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was used on the U of I campuses to hold the virus in check by utilizing widespread testing with rapid results, according to the university’s press release.

It has been administered over 1.5 million times at universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield since it launched in 2020.

The samples are tested at a covidSHIELD lab and results are released within one day. The test makes use of a genetic material contained in the SARS-CoV-2 virus to identify if the virus is present or not in the saliva.

According to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, he will allot $20 million in federal CARES Act funding to supply one million of the saliva-based tests to Illinois’ 12 public universities and 48 community colleges, the Capitol News Illinois reported.

“My administration has been proud to work hand in hand with U of I since the earliest days of this development, which has had an enormously positive effect on keeping COVID-19 at bay in the U of I System, and we’re wasting no time in deploying this technology throughout the state,” Pritzker said.