UNCW purchased 100,000 BinaxNow Covid-19 tests made by Abbott Labs, and expects to begin testing 6,500 students a week beginning Feb. 8. All students living on campus will be tested weekly, and off-campus students with in-person classes will be tested bi-weekly. (Port City Daily/Preston Lennon)
WILMINGTON — UNCW ordered 100,000 Covid-19 rapid tests to fuel a massive testing program, catering to all students who live or attend class on campus, a university spokesperson said Wednesday.
Along with mandatory tests students received prior to their spring semester return, the “
surveillance testing” program is a new component of the university’s pandemic response.
Katrin Wesner-Harts, UNCW’s top health official, said these initiatives were not widely discussed at universities while administrations were preparing to open campuses in the fall. By the spring, after Covid-19 outbreaks marked campuses nationwide, re-entry testing and a set-in-stone process for testing students throughout the semester had become the norm, she said.