Second Round of Universal COVID-19 Testing Begins Today

As part of a University System of Maryland requirement, Frostburg State University will conduct a second round of full population universal COVID-19 testing. Most faculty, staff, and students are required to submit for testing between Sept. 21st and 23rd. In an email to the campus community, FSU reports that this testing is “one of the risk indicators we are tracking to guide our decision-making.”

This second round of population testing comes after students have been back on campus for five weeks of classes and activities.

The universal testing is reported as requiring all faculty, staff, and students who are on-campus for any reason to be tested. However, there are some exceptions. Those who are taking or instructing courses entirely online are exempt, as are those who can documented a negative test administered on or before Thursday, Sept. 17. As previously reported, members of the men’s lacrosse team who are in quarantine due to a positive case that was announced on Friday, Sept. 18 will not be tested. Finally, those who have tested positive for COVID-19 since July 1st are exempt, though there are documented cases of patients being reinfected with the virus within a four month span. Researchers with the World Health Organization say that they “expect the patient to be about 10 times less infectious the second time around,” however.

If campus community members prefer to be tested independently of the universal testing, that is also allowed, as long as external test results are uploaded by Friday, Sept. 25.

In a campus-wide email on Friday, Sept. 18, the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Jeff Graham acknowledged that “several campus stakeholders did not receive the campus invitation to register for testing.” Among that group were multiple graduate students who provide teaching assistance to undergraduates. A link was provided by Graham in order to ensure that all members of the community are able to register for a testing slot.

In the first round of COVID-19 universal testing, held prior to the start of the semester, 2,673 students and employees were tested or provided validated results. Of that population, 2,661 individuals tested negative and 12 tested positive. Five of the initial tests were returned as inconclusive, but all impacted individuals were retested.

Between Aug. 15 and 22, another 1,151 tests were administered. Of that, 1,140 tests were returned as negative and 11 more positives were added.

Between Aug. 23 and Sept. 5, 632 tests were administered resulting in 626 negatives and 6 positives.

The FSU COVID-19 testing dashboard has not provided results for any tests administered after Sept. 5, or 16 days ago.

Unlike the first round of universal testing where Quest Diagnostics provided laboratory results, the second round of testing will be handled by the University of Maryland, Baltimore. According to Graham, “their laboratory turnaround time is currently around 72 hours, but could be longer depending upon their volume.” It is unclear whether the volume of tests anticipated to be administered at FSU on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will result in a delay of turnaround.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore was initially contracted to provide the first round of surveillance testing in August, but President Nowaczyk announced after the testing period that the university had decided to switch to Quest Diagnostics. Liz Medcalf, Director of Communications for FSU, says that “the logistics issues with their system that we encountered before have been addressed.”

There were many concerns on campus following the initial round of surveillance testing, in part because results for some individuals on campus took ten or more days to receive. This delay prompted several faculty members to hold classes exclusively online for the first week of the semester.

Should results be delivered in a timely manner, it is expected that an announcement on results will be made by Monday, Sep. 28.