Binghamton spokesman Ryan Yarosh said researchers are developing 3-D simulations to study indoor and outdoor movements and behaviors of students during high-traffic times at the school’s busiest locations to help develop guidelines. It also plans to randomly test a percentage of on-campus students each week.
Davis said she feels “a bit safer” knowing the school is trying to be vigilant. Still, the 18-year-old said, “I’m nervous for many reasons but Covid’s just adding a lot to that.”
Northeastern University in Boston will require three negative tests before a student can begin in-person classes. They’ll test every two to three days with medical professionals observing them as they self-swab in either a central sports facility or a separate facility intended for those who had close contact with someone who tested positive. The university aims to test students every five days thereafter for the rest of the semester.
The university built a new lab at a campus in Burlington, Massachusetts, where it aims to process up to 5,000 tests a day and partners with the Broad Institute in nearby Cambridge for added resources.
“Truly if any of us didn’t think we could do this safely, we wouldn’t do it,” provost David Madigan said. “This is not a commitment to reopen come hell and high water. This is a commitment to reopen so long as we can do it safely.”
Colleges that embrace testing are likely to face the same challenges that laboratories across the country have faced: Having enough supplies and getting timely results. Even so, experts say, it’s better than waiting until students, faculty and staff report symptoms to start testing.
“A school that tests and responds only when symptoms have been observed is like a fire department that responds only when a house has been burnt to the ground,” Yale’s Paltiel said. “Any school that can’t work its way through some of these minimum screening standards we have suggested should be asking themselves, Do we have any business reopening?”
Incoming freshmen move into a campus dormitory at the University of Colorado in Boulder on Aug. 18.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is preparing to screen about 60,000 students, faculty and staff twice a week.
When it began developing its testing strategy in May, the need for frequent screenings with quick turnaround times quickly became clear. But even state-of-the-art testing “was never going to get us there,” said Marty Burke, associate dean of research for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine who led the school’s testing and tracing program.
So Illinois developed a new test for which it’s seeking emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Similar to one developed by Yale researchers and funded by the National Basketball Association that won emergency authorization on Aug. 15, Illinois’s test uses saliva, allowing for easier collection at about 20 tents scattered across campus. The school is setting up a company to make the technology more broadly available.
Tests will be conducted at a converted veterinary lab, where they’re usually looking at illnesses in cows and pigs, Burke said. The shorter process streamlines logistics and requires less machinery and supplies. It also brings down costs to about $10 per test and aims to have capacity to process 20,000 tests a day, according to Burke.
“We are humbled by the challenge but we are really very hopeful that we can succeed,” Burke said.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.