BOISE, Idaho — Boise State's certified COVID-19 laboratory on campus is playing a vital role in keeping the college open as well as help improve testing capacity for southwest Idaho.
The campus lab opened on Oct. 13 to test Boise State students, staff and faculty, but has since expanded to running tests for first responders, teachers and other members of the wider community. Run by Boise State post-doctoral student Stephanie Hudon and staffed by students, the lab processes hundreds of tests per day.
The lab has completed 6,000 tests so far, typically providing same-day or next-day results.
University officials say the lab has played a role in keeping campus open, in conjunction with Boise State's larger plan which requires face masks, increased sanitation, reduced classroom capacity, and educated students and staff on prevention and physical distancing.
Boise State has also set aside isolation spaces for employees or students who test positive.
The methods seem to be working: Boise State has not yet identified a single case of coronavirus transmitted in a classroom, and infection rates on campus continue to be lower than the rate in the surrounding community.
"The university employed a multipronged strategy to mitigate the risk of and respond to COVID infections. Our ability to test is one of the cornerstones of this strategy, along with a robust contact tracing program that helps us identify members of our campus community who have been in close contact with an infected individual and quarantine them to prevent further spread," said Alicia Estey, vice president for Public Health. "Contact tracing is most effective when it begins right after a person becomes infected, and having our own lab with fast resulting times has been crucial to helping us begin that process early in the infection cycle."
Organizations or companies may inquire about lab testing by emailing publichealth@boisestate.edu.
The university says it would also like to also begin wastewater testing to determine where there are pockets of infection and who is at the highest risk. A similar program is currently in place at Northwest Nazarene in Nampa.
Classes at Boise State will move entirely online following Thanksgiving break. Students living on campus and faculty and staff that will work at the campus will be tested before the spring semester begins.
"Opening the Boise State COVID Lab was a game changer for our campus COVID-19 response," said public health officer Maureen Welcker. "Access both to more testing and testing connected with fast results and has greatly improved our ability to identify COVID cases and, in coordination with effective contact tracing, stop further spread of the disease among our Boise State community."
At KTVB, we’re focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the virus. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: www.ktvb.com/coronavirus.
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