(WSIL) -- Reaction continues to flood in to Governor Pritzker's new vaccination mandate for Illinois educators, healthcare workers, and higher education students.
For those who choose not to get vaccinated, they have the option to be tested weekly for COVID-19.
Since the vaccine rollout, testing services have expanded to make things easier on those who get tested.
But health departments stress, getting a shot twice is easier than getting tested once a week indefinitely.
In each county in region five, which makes up most of Southern Illinois, every county has less than half of its population fully vaccinated.
With the new mandate, there is a large population that would be required to test weekly if they choose not to get vaccinated.
Nathan Ryder from Southern Seven Health Department believes the new rules will get tiring very quickly for those who choose to test rather than receive the vaccination.
"It's certainly a lot easier to go get a vaccine twice and then be done with that whole process so you're not having to get poked an prodded on a weekly basis and potentially face the hassle of having to get a full fledged laboratory test done if you do come up positive at work or school," said Ryder.
Ryder also said there are shorter saliva tests for COVID-19 that are now more widely available, but if you test positive there, you will need a second test through a facility in order to go through contact tracing.
Southern seven health department says that test results for COVID-19 should come back within 24 hours.
However, when labs are backed up with large amounts of tests, results could take up to three days to be confirmed.
