UW-Madison has begun to integrate surveillance testing into its Smart Restart plan following a recent spike in positive COVID-19 cases among the university population.
“This will allow us to monitor for the prevalence of COVID-19 on campus, compare campus cases to cases in the broader Madison and Dane County community and limit disease spread,” indicates the Surveillance Testing page on UW-Madison’s Smart Restart website.
The testing procedure aims to aid the university in recognizing COVID-positive students and employees. Through surveillance testing, UW-Madison may be able to get a better gauge on asymptomatic cases within the campus community.
The university will be providing incentive for randomly selected test participants. UW-Madison has not disclosed its method for randomization.
“500 UW undergrads who live off campus will be randomly selected each week and asked to take a free COVID-19 test on campus. Each will receive a $10 Wiscard credit as incentive,” UW-Madison stated in a tweet.
Third year undergraduate student Riley Hazelberg was selected to participate in the surveillance testing initiative.
“I wanted to set up a doctor’s appointment through UHS (University Health Services) for a different reason. By logging on, I saw that I had an unread message. When I clicked on it, the Covid test notification came up right away,” Hazelberg said.
Hazelberg received the notification last Tuesday, participated in the test on Sept. 3 and received the results almost 36 hours later.
Volunteer cohorts will also be established for regularly scheduled COVID-19 testing. Associate Dean for Public Health and Community Engagement at the School of Medicine and Public Health Jonathan Temte and his team will be spearheading this effort.
Graduate students and employees may also volunteer for self-administered sample collection. Samples can be dropped off at the southeast corner of Lot 60, the southeast corner of Lot 114 or the Mosse Humanities Building small vehicle pull-out and loading dock.
More information on how to volunteer can be found on the Smart Restart Surveillance Testing page.
