Students now have more than one location to get an asymptomatic test on campus.
As the spring semester gets underway, Kansas State is making efforts to expand its on-campus testing to include locations across campus beyond the COVID-19 clinics at Lafene Health Center.
“We want to increase the number of [COVID-19] tests that we’re doing and so by doing that, we’re hoping that going on campus and meeting individuals where they are might be more helpful,” Abby King, director of nursing at Lafene, said.
At the start of the fall semester, the only type of testing available to students on-campus was the disease diagnostic testing used to determine if a symptomatic person or a person with contact to a known positive individual has COVID-19. As the semester progressed, K-State rolled out targeted surveillance testing for students living in the residence halls and eventually provided asymptomatic testing to the whole student body as well.
This testing expansion, King says, is just another layer to the COVID-19 response that evolves with the needs of the campus and community.
“This is just another cog to that wheel that will help identify cases as quickly as we can,” King said.
Related:
K-State will distribute vaccines, but timeline remains uncertain
NEW TESTING LOCATIONS AND TIMES
Asymptomatic testing at Lafene is still offered from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4:40 p.m. every weekday on the southwest side of the building — by the Counseling Services entrance. Testing is available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday each week at the new rotating locations:
- Tuesdays in the Kramer Dining Center Room 262
- Wednesdays in the Peters Recreation Complex Room 101H
- Thursdays at the Derby Dining Center on the first floor
- Fridays at the K-State Student Union Bluemont Room
TESTING CRITERIA
While students are not required to engage in regular testing on campus as part of the general COVID-19 prevention plan, it’s highly encouraged, vice president for student life and dean of students Thomas Lane said previously.
For the on-campus testing clinics, students can get a free test every two-weeks through an appointment-based system. To book an appointment for asymptomatic testing, visit your Lafene patient portal or call 785-532-6544. Students who are symptomatic or were exposed to another student should set up testing through the COVID-19 clinic at Lafene.
Like the asymptomatic testing offered at Lafene in the fall semester, the new mobile clinics also use self-administered nasal swabs.
Results are available in two to three business days. Positives will be communicated via phone call, while negative test results are shared through the Lafene patient portal lab work section.
