SHIELD Illinois COVID-19 Testing at NIU
On Aug. 26, 2021, the governor of the State of Illinois issued an Executive Order mandating that all higher education students and personnel be vaccinated against COVID-19 or participate in weekly testing.
NIU is using the SHIELD Illinois COVID-19 Test developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The saliva-based COVID-19 test is a non-invasive test that simply requires an individual to deposit a saliva sample into a provided vial at one of our on-campus testing sites. The sample is then transported to a network of lab partners who will process and return results to Northwestern Medicine, NIU and the individual who was tested typically within 24 hours. Read more information on the science behind the saliva-based test.
Your consistent participation in NIU’s surveillance testing program is required to help protect yourself and our NIU community. Because individuals do not initially experience symptoms (asymptomatic) for several days while carrying the COVID-19 virus, they can unknowingly spread the virus to others. Surveillance testing allows NIU to quickly identify and respond before the virus can spread.