COVID-19 Testing Sites in Chicago
See where to get tested for COVID-19 in Chicago.
According to data from the City of Chicago Data Portal, there are currently about 130 COVID-19 testing sites in Chicago and its surrounding neighborhoods. As seen on the map, there are far more testing locations closer to the downtown area and the north-side of Chicago.
Since the start of the pandemic it has been clear that COVID-19 has affected each race differently, especially in Chicago. According to The Washington Post, “black Americans account for 68 percent of the city’s 118 deaths and 52 percent of the roughly 5,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, despite making up just 30 percent of the city’s population”. They report that black Americans are dying about six times as much as white Chicagoans.
This data represents the disparities between races even during a world-wide pandemic. Many factors come into play that allow such disparities, a clear one is the difference in number of testing locations. There are less testing locations on the south side of Chicago, which is where most black Americans and other minorities reside, and farther more in the downtown and north-side area.
A lack of testing locations limits people from knowing whether they have been infected with COVID-19 or not, making it easier for the virus to spread. Although the number of testing locations have greatly increased since the start of the pandemic started in February 2020, the city must do more to cater the same type of services to the south-side of Chicago as they do on the north-side.