Two South Side aldermen joined a coalition of activists Tuesday to call on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to increase COVID-19 testing availability in South, Southwest and West side neighborhoods of color.
Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) and Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) called for testing locations that are free, staffed by public health employees and available to anyone who shows up without an appointment, symptoms or an ID. The testing sites should be open seven days a week during daytime and evening hours, they said.
Extended hours would allow essential workers who have 9-to-5 jobs the opportunity to get tested without having to miss work, Taylor said at a news conference held outside a public health center in the Englewood neighborhood.
“This is not unreasonable for us to ask for,” she said.
To make access as easy as possible, she said, permanent testing sites should be located in places where people commonly go, such as Chicago Public Schools where families pick up daily meals through the Grab-and-Go program, grocery stores, laundromats, pharmacies, CTA train stops, parks, and churches.
“Too often we wait until it’s too late to do what’s right,” Taylor said. “So let’s do right by our community.”
City data shows that more COVID-19 cases and deaths have been recorded among Black and Brown residents than white residents.
Andy Buchanon, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Health, said in an email city-run testing sites are already free and do not require an appointment, ID or insurance.
“In addition to establishing static sites, the city has also launched a mobile testing program to quickly respond to localized increases in cases and positivity rates. In total, our community-based testing program has conducted 116 mobile testing events, with a focus on communities hardest hit by COVID-19,” he said.
Sigcho-Lopez, whose ward includes parts of the Pilsen neighborhood, said the testing system “continues to fail essential workers who are putting the lives of their families at risk.”
Testing is far too dependent on private medical groups that cost money and require appointments, he said.
Dr. Howard Ehrman, a medical professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who served as assistant commissioner of health under former Mayor Harold Washington, called on Lightfoot to influence the business community to help.
“The mayor has to get on the phone this afternoon with every big grocery chain and pharmacy chain in Chicago and demand that they allow the city to set up two things on their property: there has to be simultaneous testing for COVID-19 and there has to be flu shots given,” he said.
Time is of the essence, Ehrman said, noting the virus spreads more easily in winter as people stay inside and social distancing becomes more difficult.
