Along with the mandated rules of social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines established for students returning to campus, the Geneseo administration has introduced a plan to conduct random COVID-19 saliva tests in an attempt to help contain the spread of the virus.
In emails sent to students on Sept. 4th and 17th, the Health and Counseling Department, in collaboration with SUNY Upstate Medical University, provided students with information regarding the implementation of testing random samples of students for the COVID-19 virus. Particularly, students who are at a higher risk of contracting the virus are more likely to be randomly tested.
Dr. Steve Radi, Lauderdale Health Center’s medical director, discussed how rapid testing procedures would be conducted for the upcoming months, utilizing the “Sofia Two,” a newly developed testing device that enables results to be produced in 15 minutes.
If a student is randomly selected to be tested, they are required to fulfill their obligation of completing it. Otherwise, they face the possibility of being barred from living on campus and participating in in-person classes.
Approximately 500 students per week will be tested with the saliva test in the MacVittie College Union’s ballroom between the hours of 8 am and 12 pm.
According to Radi, Geneseo will not be the only SUNY school to implement this method of testing its students. Geneseo in particular may increase the number of students tested per week.
“A number of SUNYs are now using [the saliva test] to test larger portions of the population,” Radi said via a phone interview. “We will test 500 students a week and we may even increase that number.”
Students will be notified by email at least two days in advance and will be required to fill out a Google form. This form provides them with a set of times between 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. that they can select to schedule their test time, guidelines to follow prior to taking the test and a video representation showing how the test will be conducted. Additionally, students will be required to register a COVID-19 surveillance account run through SUNY Upstate Medical University.
Rapid testing results will be made available approximately 24 hours after it is conducted.
Students who test positive have different quarantining and isolation procedures based on their Geneseo address, whether they live on or off campus.
Students who live off campus will be required to remain in their off-campus address for a two week duration.
For those who live on campus, Jones Hall is the central location for the quarantine of positive-testing students..
“We have about 50 rooms set aside in Jones hall for students who are positive,” Radi said.
Radi explained that there will also be a portion of Jones Hall for students to be quarantined.
“We will put contacts [of students who test positive] in a quarantine [room] on the other side of Jones hall for 14 days,” he said.
Radi indicated that randomly testing students will help the campus community in a variety of ways.
“I think it's going to give us a really good handle regarding our infection rate on campus,” Radi said. “Secondly, it's going to give us a heads up if we have a positive out there and let us move forward very quickly with containing that. And thirdly, I think it should really give people a lot of confidence that we're doing the right thing here and we're really dedicated to getting through this semester.”
Even with all the protocols and mandated rules in effect, the biggest obstacle to overcome is going to be following those rules. Among the rules are the daily health surveys, mandated indoor mask-wearing and designated entrances and exits.
Radi said that students are naturally compelled to violate the simple rules of wearing masks and social distancing while only being allowed to enter their assigned residence hall because it is not what people are normally accustomed to.
“Both the physical distancing and the mask-wearing are so important, and of course the hand sanitation,” he said. “A lot of these major principles about controlling this virus have not changed over these past six months. We know that these three things are very important in controlling the spread.”