When college students return to campus this fall at the University of Kansas, there will be some changes.
One of the changes will be mass testing of all students. According to a news conference Tuesday morning at the University of Kansas Health System, students will return to campus in stages.
Chris Wilson, vice president of system integration and innovation at the health system, said students are moving back to campus housing by appointments, moving in their belongings, and then returning home.
Once home, they will take a free self-administered saliva test and send it in for testing, he said. If they don’t have COVID-19, they can then go back to campus and attend their classes.
According to Wilson, KU has about 200 rooms, in Naismith Hall, where students will go if they test positive and can’t go home.
KU is hoping to avoid the fate of the University of North Carolina, which opened school and had to call off in-person classes a week later, changing to online classes, because of COVID-19 cases.
Testing at KU is through Clinical Reference Laboratory. Robert Thompson, chief executive officer of the laboratory, said the saliva test recently received FDA approval.
Currently, he believes his company can handle 20,000 saliva tests a day, and they will be increasing capacity, with a goal of 50,000 by the end of September.
According to Thompson, saliva home tests may be available at home in the future, and possibly with a home kit that gives test results.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the KU Health System, reported there were 25 COVID-19 patients in the hospital Tuesday morning, compared to 28 on Monday. Ten patients were in the intensive care unit, on less than Monday, and six were on ventilators.
The Unified Government COVID-19 webpage at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday reported 5,346 cumulative cases in Wyandotte County, an increase of 45 reported since Monday. There was one more death reported since Monday, a cumulative total of 108.
Free testing offered
Free COVID-19 testing is planned from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 19, at Zotung Christian Church, 5010 Parallel Parkway, Kansas City, Kansas, through Vibrant Health and the Health Equity Task Force.
Free testing also is offered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Unified Government Health Department parking lot at 6th and Ann, Kansas City, Kansas. For more information, call 311.
For more information on who may be tested and what to bring, visit https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19.
The KU doctors’ news conference is online at https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital.
The UG Health Department sports order is online at https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/08132020localhealthofficerorderregardingsports.pdf.
The Wyandotte County school start order is online at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.
Wyandotte County is under a mandatory mask order and is in Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan. For more information, residents may visit the UG COVID-19 website at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information or call 311 for more information.
The CDC’s COVID-19 web page is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.