ASU will begin regular and required COVID-19 testing "of a subset of students, ASU employees and employees of key business partners working on campus," an email from Provost Mark Searle and Treasurer and CFO Morgan Olsen announced Thursday.
The email said students, employees and partners will be randomly selected for testing, allowing the University to track how the coronavirus is spreading.
Students who are selected will be notified of testing times by ASU Health Services, employees will be notified by ASU's Office of Human Resources and the University will work with its business partners to develop working test times for employees, the email said.
"The people selected for testing will provide a statistically significant sample of the ASU community, as recommended by epidemiologists, which provides an up-to-date picture of what is happening with the virus," the email said. "This testing protocol will enhance ASU's ability to manage COVID-19 and mitigate potential spread."
The University announced in a press release Thursday, they plan to test 7% of the asymptomatic ASU community. The required testing is the University's "next strategic step" in its COVID-19 testing plan for the fall semester, the email said.
In an interview Monday, Neal Woodbury, interim executive vice president of ASU Knowledge Enterprise, said this random testing will allow the University to identify the "areas where we have a problem" in regards to COVID-19.
Identifying where the problem areas are enables the University to quickly react to them and ensure that ASU does not need to lock down again, he said. Students who test positive are to report their results to the University and those who come in close contact are required to self-isolate.
Isolation spaces will be available on and off campus however, the capacity and open space has yet to be announced. According to a University spokesperson, students will not be charged for isolation space or other attached expenses including meal delivery.
The University's contact tracing plan includes using Sun Card logs and interviews, as well as student and employee self-reported symptoms through the daily health check, to track down students and faculty who may have been exposed.
While ASU announced earlier in August that it would not publish its own COVID-19 tracking data, ASU President Michael Crow said in an interview with The State Press last week the University is working on a data dashboard for cases by zip code.
Health experts from around the country reiterated to The State Press that frequent and mandatory testing should be part of a successful reopening plan that also mitigates the spread of the virus.
Joshua LaBaer, the director of the Biodesign Institute, said more testing is key to stopping, or at least decreasing, the spread of COVID-19.
According to a press release Thursday, the University had acquired one million tubes to administer saliva-based tests, free of charge for all students and employees.
The Biodesign Institute developed the test in May to be a simpler, easier, safer and adequately accurate way to test. Those who get tested spit into a tube to complete the test rather than a nasal swab. In July, the University's ability to test quickly and efficiently manifested into a $12.7 million partnership with the Arizona Department of Health Services to provide at least 100,000 tests across the state.
As of Thursday, the ADHS reported 196,280 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and 4,684 deaths across all 15 counties. The state has seen a decrease in daily positives over the past several weeks, from reporting nearly 1,500 positives daily to around 600.
Members of the University community and surrounding city areas have access to testing sites run by the University and students can schedule a time through their health portal.
Reach the reporters at pjhanse1@asu.edu and wmyskow@asu.edu and follow @piperjhansen and @wmyskow on Twitter.
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Wyatt Myskow is the project manager at The State Press, where he oversees enterprise stories for the publication. He also works at The Arizona Republic, where he covers the cities of Peoria and Surprise.
Piper Hansen is the digital editor-in-chief at The State Press, overseeing all digital content. Joining SP in Spring 2020, she has covered student government, housing and COVID-19. She has previously written about state politics for The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Capitol Times and covers social justice for Cronkite News.
