COLLEGE STATION, Texas — As of Monday, mandated COVID-19 testing has ended at Texas A&M.
Officials say they are doing all they can to make sure students and staff are safe while encouraging masks and offering incentives for vaccines.
79,000 students have been tested since mandatory testing became available in august on A & M’S campus. The positivity rate was at 4.1%, which stands at about 3,000 plus people
“In fact, many of those positives were asymptomatic people, so a positive test does not necessarily equate to severe illness across our community, “said Dr. Dannenbaum, Director of Student Health Services.
The university says since March, 12,000 individuals have been vaccinated on campus – 11,000 of those are students – with even more getting vaccinated in other places – a &m is able to vaccinate 200 people per day – they have all three vaccine shots available
“There’s a lot of effort being spent to make sure we are doing everything we possibly can again under the rules and regulations of the state of Texas as a public institution of higher education we have to live within the boundaries of the rules that we have for us, but we think we are doing everything we can and probably even more,” said Greg Hartman, Chief Operations Officer
According to education leaders, there are almost 26 factors the school would have to test out before they could move everything to virtual – but professors should be offering ways to make up homework if sick.
The university is feeling confident in the way they are monitoring things now and that includes incentives for vaccines, having up to 60 isolated rooms available for the sick and water waste testing.
“In the wastewater, if the virus is present, which of course we know it is now you can actually get a measurement on the actual viral load that is occurring on different parts of campus,” said Hartman.
With flu season being around the corner that raises another concern.
“And we will be adding in flu vaccines here very shortly, those just arrived last week, we are getting those set up as well and just an FYI you can get your covid19 and flu shot together if you are interested, “said Dr. Dannenbaum.
Officials say they do expect positivity numbers to rise to be that they are only testing people who have symptoms or may be sick now. They ask that students and staff stay at home if they are not feeling well.