Student COVID-19 Testing is a Key to Campus Reentry Process
Clinical research coordinator Brenna Abril instructs students in self-administering the nasal swab antigen test at the Recreation and Wellness Center, known as NorthREC, in Tucson.
As students returned to the University of Arizona for classes in August, those who planned to live in a dorm were required to take a diagnostic test for COVID-19. The test was optional, but encouraged, for those who live in off-campus housing.
The process is part of the Test, Trace, Treat plan for safely returning to campus after months of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The test looks for antigens, or active signs of infection, even if the person tested is asymptomatic.
The university has designated isolation spaces set up for those who test positive and need to move in order to prevent possible exposure to roommates and others. Testing is one aspect of the overall public health measures put in place to protect the campus community during the pandemic.
Read more about precautions added, or view a gallery of the measures throughout the Health Sciences campuses.
University of Arizona students inside the NorthREC facility, at the Honors Village in Tucson, use their phones to register for COVID-19 antigen testing.
University of Arizona student Heath Zuniga (left) watches as Wyatt Snell, a clinical research coordinator, takes student Mason Young’s temperature prior to the self-administered COVID-19 testing procedure.
Clinical research coordinator Brenna Abril instructs students in self-administering the nasal swab antigen test at the Recreation and Wellness Center, known as NorthREC, in Tucson.
University of Arizona student Mason Young inserts a nasal swab into his nose. The COVID-19 test was required for all dormitory residents and remains available to students and staff.
Clinical research coordinator Brenna Abril provides sanitizer spray for students Mason Young and Heath Zuniga after they take an antigen test at the University of Arizona Recreation and Wellness Center, known as NorthREC, in Tucson.
University of Arizona students get tested for COVID-19 by taking a self-administered antigen test at McKale Center in Tucson.
A student sanitizes her seat after completing a self-administered nasal swab antigen test for COVID-19 at McKale Center in Tucson.
Students deposit their COVID-19 test sample into a cooler for storage at McKale Center in Tucson.
After taking a COVID-19 test, students get a free face mask and digital thermometer to help monitor symptoms as part of Wildcat Wellcheck.
Registered nurse Shannon Espinosa puts a label on a tube for an antigen test at the University of Arizona Phoenix Biomedical Campus.
Rodrigo Silva, DVM, MPH, adjunct professor at the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health in Phoenix, administers the COVID-19 antigen test by placing a swab inside his nostril to collect a sample.
COVID-19 sample collection tubes on hand for continued testing of those in the University of Arizona campus community. The university administered more than 11,000 tests from July 31 to August 31 to help identify all potential cases of COVID-19 as students, staff and faculty returned to campus in a limited capacity.
After the sample is collected, it is stored with other samples in a cooler to be taken to a lab at the University of Arizona Health Sciences. Students receive their results within two hours.
The door to one of two University of Health Sciences labs processing tests for COVID-19 antigens. Students and staff can receive a result within two hours.
Anete Milkovica, a research technician, carries a set of nasal swab samples to a lab technician to start processing the tests.
Lab technician Cindy Bujanda places a set of antigen sample tubes under the hood in the testing laboratory.
A tube with a name and a code associated with the person who took the antigen test is scanned in the lab.
Anete Milkovica, a research technician, opens a test sample.
The nasal swab is placed into a liquid and then the liquid is pipetted onto a cassette. A machine reads the cassette and supplies a positive or negative result.
Research technician Anete Milkovica processes samples for testing.
The liquid sample must incubate in a cassette for 15 minutes before it is placed into a machine that will yield a result within 11 seconds.
Lab tech Jennifer Alvarado places a cassette into the machine and waits 11 seconds for a result.
Lab tech Jennifer Alvarado places a cassette with a person's nasal swab sample into the machine that will process it and determine whether the person is positive or negative for COVID-19. This blue machine takes 11 seconds to produce a result, and a person is notified of their results via email within two hours of taking the test.