USU fights COVID-19 with Tuesday Testing
Utah State University has implemented a new program called Tuesday Testing in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19, but some students have been reluctant to participate.
As part of Tuesday Testing, approximately 600 students are randomly selected for testing each week. An email is sent to those selected with instructions for how to sign up for a testing time.
“Students are expected to come for their testing,” said Amanda Bevington Drungil, the program coordinator at USU's Center for Community Engagement. “Generally, students have been really receptive. They are wanting to show up, and they are showing care for taking safety precautions."
The Utah System of Higher Education has asked universities to test students who are most at risk of infection and has required USU to hold weekly testing to limit the spread of COVID-19.
All students who are living on campus or attend in-person classes are eligible for selection. Those who have received both vaccinations or who have had the virus in the past 90 days can opt out of the testing.
“To have a positivity rate below 1% is really great,” Drungil said. After two weeks of testing 4,801 students, there was a positivity rate of 0.6%. Her team is optimistic about how the plan is going.
Out of 600 selected students, there is hope for about 240 to be tested.
But Jaycie Hart, a USU student, chose not to get tested because she knew there would be no consequences.
“It seems to me that it’s a really good resource if students have symptoms. But no one is going for the random testing, so they are wasting their time and energy,” she said.
Officials from the Utah System of Higher Education believe students will be more compliant with the randomized testing rather than enforcing mandatory testing throughout the semester.
“I really don’t care about getting tested, and I would have rather not gone. But I didn’t know if there was some consequence for not going. That’s why I went,” said McKailey Bradshaw, a USU student who did take part in random testing.
Bradshaw and other students would rather have the option of getting tested only when they have symptoms.
Students may not want to get tested often, but USU officials are pleased with the progress being made.
“Students, faculty and staff have shown enormous resilience over the last year, and we are all looking forward to being back on campus and together again,” said USU’s chief strategic communicator, Amanda DeRito.
In addition to Tuesday Testing, USU performs regular testing for those who are symptomatic, conducts contact tracing and carries out wastewater testing.
“I think that Tuesday Testing is critical, but I recognize that it’s one piece of the puzzle,” Drungil said. “Research is showing that all of these things are contributing to help slow the spread.”
Utah State officials recognize more needs to be done before returning to how things were pre-pandemic.
“Though we hope to gradually move back to normal, that may look different for a while,” DeRito said. “The disease will not disappear overnight, and the university will respond to how the situation unfolds.”