BUFFALO, N.Y. — In-person classes start at almost all SUNY campuses Monday and preventing further spread of COVID-19 remains a top priority.
SUNY is opening a COVID-19 testing lab in Buffalo. It will serve all of SUNY's Western New York campuses with a faster turn around time.
"Today is a really special day. It is a wonderful example of collaborating amongst the SUNY schools, as well as with a private partner, to bring the world's best saliva test to every student and hopefully by extension at some point, to the community here as well," Upstate Medical University President Dr. Mantosh Dewan said.
The lab will be at the University at Buffalo's South Campus, and it will have four new testing machines.
SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras said this will increase their capacity by 75 percent, for a total of 350,000 tests per week.
This also means now every student, faculty and staff member who is on campus will be tested on a weekly basis.
That's on top of other public safety measures, such as reducing density on campus and requiring masks.
"The main piece to being successful is testing. That allows us to monitor the situation and aggressively address situations as they emerge," Malatras said.
SUNY officials told reporters the test itself is very accurate, and with the additional lab, results should be returned to campuses within 24 hours.
Malatras added, "We're educating our students. We're providing a safe environment for our students to be back on campus and we're innovating in realtime in the middle of a pandemic. SUNY has stepped up in a major way."
The lab is expected to be operational in March.
The chancellor said they also want to provide testing eventually to the broader community and this expansion could provide the additional, long-term capacity to do so.
