Some schools are testing students frequently while others are using wastewater and contact tracing to target their resources.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ended the year by surpassing a major milestone. The campus completed more than 1 million coronavirus tests during the fall term to the tune of roughly $4 million a month.
The university screened students at least twice a week, administering around 10,000 tests each weekday and slowing that pace during the weekends. A campus lab worked nearly around the clock to process them, enabling students to receive their results within five to 10 hours.
The aggressive testing policy appears to be paying off. The share of coronavirus tests that returned positive peaked at 2.9% in late August, right after in-person classes began, and stayed mostly under 1% for the rest of the term, according to the university’s coronavirus dashboard.
Approaches to coronavirus testing varied widely among colleges in the fall, with schools selecting methods based on their enrollment, budgets and access to lab facilities. While UIUC has one of the most aggressive testing strategies in the nation, not all colleges have the funds or capability to provide such extensive screening.