COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M announced Thursday night that they will be randomly selecting over 5,000 students starting August 21 to get tested for COVID-19 throughout the semester.
The Random Testing Program is part of A&M's campus protection strategies. On their website they explain that they've unveiled this program to "contain the spread as much as possible in order to continue to offer in-person classes." They hope that catching students with no symptoms that are infected with the virus will help contain the spread of the virus on campus.
Students selected anonymously will receive an email with the subject line " Random Testing Program – You are Selected to Test". The school asks that students get tested within 48 hours of receiving the email. Tests will be free and information and results will stay confidential.
The university says all data will be used "to learn where the virus is located on campus, understand factors that facilitate transmission among students, and locate geographic patterns of COVID-19."
