CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The bitter cold is bringing a temporary closure to COVID testing sites in Chicago.
Four city-run COVD-19 test facilities will be closed from Friday through Wednesday as an arctic blast hits the city, officials announced Thursday.
"Those are outdoor testing sites. I mean people are in vehicles, but the staff are outdoors, and although we have done a lot to make them relatively able to function in our cold winters, when it gets to this level of cold, honestly from a safety perspective, we don't want the staff and volunteers potentially being exposed. There are walk up availabilities at the site, we don't want people walking up when it's that kind of weather," said CDPH Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
The city will be hit with up to 5 inches of snow starting Thursday afternoon in the third winter storm in two weeks, forecasters warned.
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The storm will be followed deep freeze that’ll stretch into next week. Temperatures may not rise above the single digits, and wind chills may reach minus 30 degrees in what city officials called an “arctic blast.”
The testing facilities were already scheduled to be closed on Feb. 12 and Feb. 15, which are city-observed holidays to mark Presidents Day and President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.
There are no plans to close the city’s seven mass vaccination sites because of the severe weather, Arwady said, as they are all indoors.
The four sites are located at:
• Midway Airport, Parking Lot B, 5738 W. 55th St.;
• Prosser Career Academy, 2148 N. Long Ave.;
• Saucedo Scholastic Academy, 2850 W. 24th Blvd.; and
• Gately Park, 744 E. 103rd St.