The University of Chicago Medicine health system, including Ingalls Memorial, will expand COVID-19 testing for up to 1,000 symptomatic people each day, a roughly fivefold increase over the average 200 daily tests that were performed since onsite screenings began on March 15.
Testing had previously been limited to employees and eligible symptomatic patients because of a critical shortage of necessary testing supplies, particularly nasal and nasopharyngeal swabs. But an increase in supplies has allowed the four-hospital UChicago Medicine system to expand community screening services to Chicago’s South Side and suburban Harvey. To date, the academic health system has performed more than 7,000 tests. Roughly 20% of patients have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
