All URI students are required to participate in biweekly COVID testing this semester. Photo by Greg Clark.
As the University of Rhode Island begins its spring semester, students are now required to participate in biweekly testing at the Memorial Union to ensure the campus positivity rates remain low.
Through their e-campus portal, students are able to sign up for biweekly testing sessions. Testing is held in the Memorial Union, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is also a COVID-19 testing site at the Providence campus available to students on Wednesdays from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Samuel Adams, director of emergency management and assistant director of public safety at URI, has overseen COVID-19 testing along with the new regulations being implemented this semester.
The Rhode Island Department of Health, in conjunction with Gov. Gina Raimondo, passed a new executive order related to institutes of higher education. In order for the campus to remain open with in-person classes, they must take steps to keep students safe, including an increase in student testing.
“We negotiated on 50 percent per week in terms of what we could realistically do,” Adams said. “Our expectation is even if students aren’t coming to our campus for in-person classes, they’re still a part of the URI community and so as responsible members of the community everybody should be getting tested.”
There are two types of tests conducted: symptomatic and surveillance testing. If a student is feeling ill or experiencing symptoms related to COVID-19, they are advised to go to the trailer across from Health Services, where they will receive two tests: a rapid antigen test and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test which gives results in about 24 hours. Surveillance testing is conducted in the Memorial Union throughout the week. These tests are required for students and community members who have either been exposed to COVID-19 or are just getting tested on a regular basis.
Dr. Christopher Nasin, the medical director of URI Health Services, has been working to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on campus. Throughout the academic year, Nasin has experienced the rise and fall of student positivity rates firsthand
“At this moment in time we’re actually better than we were in many cases last semester, so that’s really good,” Nasin said. “Right now I can happily say that we’re actually under 1 percent for positivity rate.”
The University has been heavily relying on volunteers who offer time from their day to be at the Memorial Union.
“It’s been really great,” Nasin said. “I mean, the University really came together as a community to help us with that. So, in the beginning, Health Services was sort of doing everything. Now, the community [has] really stepped up and have been incredibly helpful.”
The increase in testing is proving to have an overall positive impact on the campus success rate against COVID-19. Nasin said that he is confident that if the URI community keeps up with testing and follows social distancing guidelines, campus life will return back to normal soon.
Nasin did note that, through contact tracing efforts, the University identified several COVID-19 clusters in on-campus Greek Life housing. Due to this those Greek Life houses have been quarantined and all Greek Life members living on-campus have been asked to get tested over a one-week period to monitor the situation.
“I am hopeful and I am confident that if we can do those things that we’ll get there,” he said. “If we do all those things we’re going to get out of this corner that we’re painted into right now, I promise you that. I really think if we can be successful doing those things that I just mentioned, I think next fall is going to look very different and very normal.”