The University hopes to decrease the cost of COVID-19 testing in the spring semester by having University-reliant testing, Provost Bob Blouin said at a Tuesday Campus & Community Advisory Committee meeting. Currently, the University uses an outside vendor for testing.
“We feel the only way we could have a safe return would be to stand up our own testing,” Blouin said. “It will be somewhere in that $30 to 35 a test.”
Blouin attended the committee meeting in order to receive feedback from members on this plan.
“University leaders are working to finalize plans for the spring semester and are receiving recommendations from partners, such as the Campus & Community Advisory Committee,” Leslie Minton, associate director of Media Relations, said in an email. “Their feedback is an important part of our planning process.”
University-reliant testing means the entire collection and testing process would take place on campus instead of through contract labs, Audrey Pettifor, a UNC epidemiologist and Campus & Community Advisory Committee member, said.
“Contract labs are charging people,” she said. “We still have the cost of the (testing), and we still have the cost of personnel, but we're bringing it in-house. We can bring down costs by kind of doing it ourselves is my understanding.”
Pettifor said this testing would be as accurate as testing using outside vendors.
“My understanding is they're looking into the same kind of (testing) that's being done,” she said. “They're still hoping that it can give a result in 24 hours.”
The University’s ability to bring testing in-house is dependent upon getting the right resources before spring semester, Pettifor said.
