UNC will require reentry COVID-19 testing for students at the start of the spring semester, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said at Thursday’sBoard of Trustees meeting.
Dr. Amir Barzin, the medical director at the Family Medicine Center at Chapel Hill, said the University is planning to open three COVID-19 testing locations on campus in the spring, where students can self administer a noninvasive nose swab test.
“It should take no more than two minutes for someone to come through and register themselves for their test, administer the test and then walk out of the testing center,” Barzin said.
The University will also expand quarantine and isolation dorm spaces to four or five times their capacity from the fall semester, Guskiewicz said.
“We’re working with both our local and state partners to make sure that we are very clear on the duties that the Campus Health department is going to maintain in terms of making sure that those who are on campus get moved to the appropriate dorms,” Barzin said.
Barzin said the University is in the process of opening its own testing lab to handle the large influx of expected testing. He said he expects it to be fully functional by the second week of December.
“We have been working very hard with our internal IT team, and then also external partners, to be able to make sure that we have a reporting platform that not only is able to give results to students that are being tested, but to also be able to report to our state agencies,” Barzin said.
Aside from testing, UNC Police Chief David Perry said campus police has established joint patrols with the Chapel Hill Police Department to respond to calls related to mass gatherings and other activities.
“One of the things we learned that we needed to really try to reinforce, every day of every week, is to try to control and enforce the off-campus gatherings,” Guskiewicz said. “I do believe that the vast majority of students were adhering to those community standards, but those who aren't, we hope that they, too, have learned some lessons.”
