BUFFALO, N.Y. — The University at Buffalo is making some changes this spring semester including everybody on-campus getting tested every week for COVID-19.
"We will have 100 percent testing of our student body here at University at Buffalo," says Joseph Raab, who is UB's COVID safety monitor.
When staff and students return for the spring semester on Monday at UB, it will look a lot like last semester: social distancing, masks, fewer tables in dining halls.
But you will also have to get tested for COVID-19 every week, and students can either be tested before coming back or get tested when they return.
"The students can come, and they will be tested using a swabbing of the mouth method. Basically, it's a saliva test, and the saliva is collected on a swab. Once it's collected, it goes into a test tube that has some compound in it, the different samples that are collected are then pooled together in samples of 12, and they're sent to Upstate Medical, SUNY Upstate Medical, for analysis," Raab said.
Results are ready in a day or two.
"That has been a huge effort on the part of the University, and we've organized it by having several test facilities on the different campuses, and we have certain ones open next week. The following week we'll have different ones open, but on the North Campus at any given time there will probably be at least three testing facilities open, at least one, maybe two on the South Campus, and then one for the downtown Medical Campus," Raab explained.
If a student tests positive, there is a quarantine dorm where they would stay for the required 10-day quarantine.
Staff, faculty, and students were also asked to quarantine for seven days before returning to campus, so they're in the middle of doing that right now.
"They're being asked to basically just kind of limit their time outside of the home, try to minimize their time spent with other people, make sure that they have good procedures as far as using face coverings and social distancing and that sort of thing, and really try to separate themselves from other people," Raab said.
This semester, students will learn through a combo of in-person and online classes.
Weekly testing for students starts the week of February 8.