Several modifications to the testing for employees and students for the spring semester will enhance The University of Alabama’s efforts to mitigate community spread of the coronavirus.
The University invested in setting up a lab that performs polymerase chain reaction tests, or PCR tests, the more rigorous of available tests for COVID-19. Coupled with the ability to conduct rapid tests, UA medical staff can more easily collect and report results in a timely manner.
Similarly, the sentinel testing program has moved in house, with UA medical facilities managing collection, testing and reporting of the random sample of the campus community. The move eliminates the need to register for sentinel testing, and it should lead to an expansion of testing eligibility on campus. There are also more locations on campus for sentinel testing.
Testing was also made easier with drive-thru symptomatic and exposure testing for students during the week of Jan. 18, and several other testing locations have been added around campus in addition to the testing done at the Student Health Center.
“We feel good about our efforts underway this semester,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of UA’s College of Community Health Sciences. “We listened to feedback from faculty, staff and students from the fall semester, and set out to take a proactive approach to mitigate concerns to provide accessible testing with reliable, rapid results.”
Spring 2021 sentinel testing will include a sample of the UA population and is being conducted weekly for three consecutive weeks that began Jan. 19 and every other week thereafter.
Participation in sentinel testing is voluntary for most, but required for:
- Students living on campus;
- Students participating in clinical activities, who will have a presence on campus at any time during the semester; and
- Other individuals participating in University-sponsored programs, at the discretion of UA.
Because sentinel testing is one of several important measures for preventing the spread of the coronavirus and keeping campus safe, voluntary participation is strongly encouraged.
Along with eliminating the need to register, incentives such as Bama Cash gift cards were added this semester, and a person who participates will not be included in the selection pool for 30 days.
“The sentinel program is a bridge to for-cause testing,” Friend said. “These changes should increase participation so we can make good, scientific calls on where we need to go and what we need to do with for-cause testing.”
For-cause testing occurs when there is a geographic cluster of positive test results such as a section of a residence hall or a classroom. Working alongside symptomatic and exposure testing, sentinel testing is designed to find these clusters early by alerting of asymptomatic individuals in a community.
Re-entry testing of students living on campus in residence halls or Greek Housing was able to capture nearly every resident student within the first week of the semester, showing low positivity rates, Friend said.
For up-to-date information on testing for employees, students and other messages related to COVID-19, please visit healthinfo.ua.edu.