March 26, 2021 – Rivian (Irvine, CA), an electric vehicle maker, has signed a deal with the University of Illinois to use its COVID-19 saliva tests in its factories in Illinois and California.
The Amazon-backed vehicle startup has donated $500,000 to the Univ. of Illinois’ SHIELD COVID-19 testing program to launch and support a new lab at Illinois State University, which is close to the company’s plant in Normal, Illinois.
“The proximity of the Normal lab to our facility means the turnaround time for our workers’ COVID-19 test results has dropped from 36 to 24 hours,” Jessica Siron, director of environmental, health and safety at Rivian said.
The SHIELD lab in Normal, run by Illinois State University staff, opened Jan. 11 and is currently processing about 5,000 tests a week from Rivian’s 3.5 million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Normal. Rivian is also using the Univ. of Illinois’ saliva-based test in its operations in California.
SHIELD Illinois is charging private companies $30 per test, plus the cost of collection, a Univ. of Illinois spokesman told Crain’s Chicago Business. The program currently has two private company customers, Rivian and agricultural giant ADM.
Other partners include public entities like universities, colleges, K-12 schools, and government bodies, which pay $25, plus collections, for the test.
To date, the Univ. of Illinois system has administered more than 1.5 million of the SHIELD tests at its Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield universities, the statement said. The tests are being used at more than 40 sites.
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