Mandatory Testing For 40,000 Students Begins Tuesday, March 23
*Mandatory testing starts Tuesday, March 23 for students living, studying or working on the Texas A&M University campus.
Roughly 40,000 students are required to get the free COVID-19 test. The following three groups are impacted:
- All students residing in university housing on the Bryan-College Station campus need to test for COVID-19 March 23-24;
- All student employees working on the main campus and all Bryan-College Station Health Science Center buildings need to test for COVID-19 March 25-29; and
- All students in courses which are only offered face-to-face at the campus need to test for COVID-19 March 29-April 2.
Officials are urging students to check the COVID-19 Testing Locations page since not all of the nine sites are open daily.
As of Friday, 677 students had tested positive so far this semester, while 595 student cases were reported for the entire fall semester.
If a student doesn’t live or work on the flagship campus, and is not attending classes in person, they are not required to get a test, however, health experts recommend making it a habit by getting tested every two to three weeks. It helps identify as many positive individuals as possible to reduce the spread of the virus.
Volunteers Needed
Students, faculty and staff are being called upon to volunteer at one of the mandatory testing sites.
Texas A&M is asking unit supervisors to host a testing day/site by providing students, faculty and staff volunteers on a selected day, though individual volunteers are welcome.
Volunteers will be physically distanced from those testing, not handling samplings and mostly helping with logistics. Individuals can sign-up in half day blocks and can sign up for multiple blocks. If you’re interested in hosting a testing site/shift, email Benika Dixon, benikad@tamu.edu. To sign up individually, visit this site: https://timecounts.org/tamu-covid-testing/events/31031
Texas A&M reported a 7.5 percent overall positivity rate for the first two weeks of March. Face-coverings continue to be required on campus regardless of whether you’ve had a vaccine.
All faculty, students and staff who test positive for COVID-19 are required to self-report through the COVID-19 report form found on this guidance page.
* This link is no longer active and has been removed.
