The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced today that in response to a sharp drop in the demand for COVID-19 testing services at the ten Community-Based Testing Sites and the anticipated end of federal funding, operations at the locations will end on March 31. IDPH previewed that operations would be winding down when the mask mandate was lifted and has seen traffic at the sites – which carried out more than 1.5 million tests in total throughout their operation – drop precipitously in recent weeks. The sites are currently handling less than one percent of the tests being conducted statewide.

As a new COVID-19 treatment rolls out across the country, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) continues to distribute these life-saving therapeutics equitably across the state.  On February 11, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for a new monoclonal antibody, bebtelovimab, for the treatment of COVID-19. 

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) continues to urge people to get vaccinated and boosted as it marks the two-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 case reported in Illinois. Two years later, IDPH is reporting more than 30,000 COVID-19 deaths in Illinois.