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MTU begins COVID-19 testing for freshmen

Zachariah DeYoung, doctor at Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center, does a nasopharyngeal swab of a Michigan Technological University freshman to test for COVID-19 Friday. Over the weekend, 1,100 students were scheduled to be tested. (Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — More than 1,000 Michigan Technological University students were tested for COVID-19 this weekend as they moved back to campus.

Four-hundred students were scheduled for the free tests Friday, with another 700 Saturday, said Brian Cadwell, director of Michigan Tech Public Safety. The move-in team worked with Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center (UGL) to set up an electronic registration system, with tests staggered five minutes apart.

A testing tent has been set up on campus since last week, when testing began with orientation leaders. In anticipation of inclement weather, it was moved to the Memorial Union Building Friday.

Off-campus fraternities and sororities have also been asked to be tested, Cadwell said.

Because of the large number of students, the samples are pooled in groups of five. If the larger batch tests positive, the samples are tested individually.

Samples are sent every hour to the campus’s lab at the Great Lakes Research Center. Students should be able to get test results within 24 hours through UGL’s online portal, Cadwell said.

Testing will be ongoing throughout the semester on a volunteer basis. The university hopes to conduct 600 tests per week, Cadwell said.

“They don’t have to, but if they get tests, we can see if the virus has moved through here or not,” he said.

Graduate students and returning undergraduates are encouraged to be tested when they arrive on campus to establish a baseline. Tech may ask students to take part in surveillance testing later in the semester.

If any students are potentially exposed to COVID-19, there will be quarantine self-marking, Cadwell said. Any students with the virus will quarantine in rooms set aside at local hotels.

So far, none of the tests conducted at the on-campus site have come back positive, Cadwell said.

As of Friday, 614 tests had been conducted among the Michigan Tech community dating back to the start of the epidemic. There had been four positive tests, and none in the past two weeks.

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