The University of Georgia is shifting its COVID-19 testing strategy to a “randomized” process some say lacks specifics and worry will result in less testing.
Under the new plan, students and employees would be invited to volunteer for surveillance testing in what UGA called a “stratified, random sampling procedure” to identify locations where COVID-19 cases are high on or off-campus, the university said in a message Wednesday.
Surveillance testing is done to identify whether someone is asymptomatic, or doesn’t have COVID-19 symptoms. Students who are symptomatic should contact the University Health Center for a test.
Previously, asymptomatic students could make an appointment for testing or simply show up at the testing site. UGA will now have a limited number of slots available for those who haven’t been invited to be screened, but still want to be tested. The message, though, acknowledged challenges, such as limited supplies.
“Supply chain issues are very real, and plans that look good in theory do not always work,” part of the message said. “For example, if we were to dramatically scale up our testing of asymptomatic individuals, we would be consuming medical-grade PPE and swabs that are needed to treat sick patients. We would also slow down our ability to run the tests quickly, thereby reducing their effectiveness in mitigating COVID-19 spread. We are operating in a very delicate balance: by managing the number of tests that we can perform effectively at UGA, we are minimizing strain on other providers, and we are maximizing the effectiveness of the tests we conduct.”
UGA medical officials said Thursday they are still working on details about how the new testing process will be carried out and did not have information about how many tests would be done.
The university previously set a goal to do 300 surveillance tests a day —or 24,000 by Thanksgiving — when classes are scheduled to end. UGA had about 50,000 students and employees last school year. UGA said earlier this month it’s spending $2.4 million on surveillance testing. They called the prior plan a pilot program.
UGA conducted 1,364 surveillance tests between Aug. 17-21 and reported 32 positive results, according to its website. Twenty-nine of those positive cases were students.
UGA reported, through the surveillance tests and data gathered in other ways, 173 positive cases among students and employees between Aug. 17-21, nearly three times its 68 total cases the week before. About 60% of the cases were reported off-campus or in other unspecified locations, according to its website.
Many faculty members have criticized Georgia’s flagship university for reopening the campus for the fall semester, which began last week, as COVID-19 cases have risen in many states and experts predict a spike in positive cases this fall. The university reported more than 500 positive tests since it began tracking the data in March.
Longtime UGA math professor Joe Fu is among the faculty members who want the university to conduct more testing.
“The testing plan is not adequate to keeping the campus safe,” he said.
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