Students, faculty and staff are being randomly chosen to take COVID-19 saliva tests.
The dreaded emails have already begun to arrive in students’ inboxes.
“You are receiving this e-mail because you have been randomly selected to participate in the Mandatory COVID Testing.”
Beginning March 1, Penn State has reinstitute random coronavirus spit tests through Vault Health.
One important difference this semester is that students no longer will request a test to be mailed to them, said Chris Rizzo, director of student affairs.
Instead, students will schedule an appointment to stop in the Health Center in the Ross Administration Building to pick up a test, Rizzo said. Students can even complete the test in the Health Center and drop off the UPS envelop at the campus bookstore to be shipped to Vault.
Student athletes who get selected for testing follow a slightly different process. COVID testing will take place inside the lower level of the gym, outside of the training office.
“We have a table set up and when it is nice out, we actually go outside to do the tests,” said Zoe Kratzer, athletic trainer.
The process of the saliva test is the same. However, any student-athlete selected who does not test on their given appointment time will be withheld from their team activities until the test is completed.
Keara Mollenauer, sophomore, said, “I think it is necessary for random testing throughout the semester because people might not know that they are positive and that can provide safety to students all over campus.”
Sophomore Kate Elkins said she looks forward to being selected. “To be honest, I would like to get picked as I’d feel better knowing I’m not potentially infecting any other students or my family or my co-workers.”
One way to stay informed is to look at the COVID-19 Dashboard, located at virusinfo.psu.edu. The COVID-19 Dashboard can give you updated information on recent Coronavirus testing results throughout all 20 campuses. The dashboard gives you the number of tests given within the last seven days, the number of the tests that were positive and the positivity rate among those tests.
As of March 4, 2021, the Penn State Beaver dashboard shows no positive tests within the past week. Out of 340 COVID tests given, only one was positive.
Random testing is just one of the measures Penn State has implemented this semester.
“There are a large number of cleaning protocols that happen on a daily basis, across campus,” Rizzo said.
“When we have student activities on campus, it meets with a review process so that we are sure it is a safe event,” he added. “Protocols will be ensured during those activities.”
With Penn State Beaver constantly giving out random coronavirus tests, it is still possible for a positive one to slip by.
“I just recently had a student who tested negative on the pre-arrival,” said Nurse Barb Kugel. “They tested negative on the rapid testing. Then, last week, they tested positive. They started feeling ill.”
She added, “Masking up, social distancing (and) hand washing are all very important. In retrospect, if we had been doing these things all along, we probably would have lessened and decreased the effects on the population.”