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Education Dive
Is robust coronavirus testing enough to prevent college outbreaks?
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
Sept. 3, 2020
Dive Brief:
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), which drew
national attention for its aggressive coronavirus testing strategy, has
seen a spike in cases since classes began last week. Students and
faculty are required to be tested twice a week.
The state's flagship campus reported more than 700 new cases between
Aug. 24 and 31. University officials attributed the uptick to students
ignoring health guidance by attending large social gatherings and not
heeding instructions to isolate.
The trends in student behavior suggest that widespread testing likely
won't be enough to mitigate the virus's spread on campuses.
Dive Insight:
Coronavirus testing has been key in colleges' fall reopening plans, but
institutions' access to tests, and their ability to pay for them,
varies drastically. Affluent colleges and those with ties to medical
facilities, for instance, could have an easier time handling the virus.
One recent study suggested colleges would need to screen students for
the virus every two days to stem it successfully using lower-cost
testing options, with the caveat that students would also need to
adhere to social distancing measures.
And some UIUC students did not abide by health guidance. More than 100
of them, and several student organizations, will be disciplined for
breaking the university's rules, campus officials said in a statement
Wednesday. Two students have been suspended.
In response, the university is beefing up enforcement efforts for at
least two weeks. More staff members will be on hand to watch for large
social gatherings, and the university is working with the Champaign
Urbana Public Health District to try to more quickly identify positive
cases. Students who host a party or refuse to quarantine will be
immediately suspended.
Undergraduate students should only leave their homes for "essential
activities," such as grocery shopping, going to work or getting
coronavirus tests, the university said. Officials noted that the campus
was on track to have between 75 and 100 new cases a day, and as many as
8,000 positive cases over the course of the semester.
Taking swift action in response to the rise in cases, including by
removing certain students from campus, will help the testing program
succeed, officials said in a statement.
UIUC has been lauded for its robust coronavirus testing and was
considered a model for other colleges reopening this fall. The
university is pursuing a mix of in-person and online classes.
Students and faculty who will be on campus this fall must be screened
for the virus twice weekly. The university has developed a saliva-based
test, which officials have said has a faster turnaround time and is
more efficient than other methods of detecting the virus.
"Testing, testing, and more testing is the road to the promised land
for in-person education," two UIUC academics wrote in a Chicago
Sun-Times op-ed published the day classes began.
UIUC's test results could come back within hours, which is vital for
tracking asymptomatic carriers, who are among the most "deadly"
vectors, the pair wrote. But a successful in-person fall, they noted,
hinges on student participation in the testing program, as well as them
meeting other health guidelines: wearing face coverings, social
distancing and hand-washing.
But colleges can't rely on students doing that, behavioral experts told
Education Dive. Some students will intentionally ignore rules and throw
big parties, but many others will likely make innocuous mistakes, such
as stopping to talk to a friend maskless, they said.
Colleges have started to blame students for a rise in case counts, but that likely won't help either, experts said.
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