The University of Oregon’s Monitoring and Assessment Program has expanded its testing capabilities to allow for limited COVID-19 testing for individuals with mild viral symptoms, UO announced on Jan. 10. The expansion followed a week of the highest recorded COVID-19 case numbers in the UO community since March 2020.
Lane County Public Health is also partnering with the Oregon Health Authority to host vaccine booster clinics at Autzen Stadium starting Jan. 27. No appointments are needed and the clinic will be open daily from noon to 7 p.m., according to a UO community-wide email sent Jan. 24. MAP testing has also “nearly doubled daily testing appointments starting this week.”
UO created MAP in the spring of 2020 to “develop and expand the university’s testing capacity for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19,” according to MAP’s official website. The program now has a testing capacity of about 4,000 tests a week, according to its official website details on the expansion.
University communications wrote that people with mild viral symptoms, resembling a common cold, can be tested on the west side of McArthur Court at the ticket booths off University Street. Asymptomatic individuals should register for a testing appointment through the online registration process, as walk-ins are permitted, but “may have longer wait times, as registered participants have priority.” Testing is available Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Brian Fox, MAP’s executive director, said the increased testing capacity will help ease access to testing for the community during an increased time of COVID-19 cases.
“The need for additional testing options in our community at this time is clear,” Fox said. “Throughout the pandemic, our program’s mission has been to expand access to free, highly accurate PCR testing to both UO students and employees and other Lane County residents. This expansion is another step towards that goal.”
UO spokesperson Saul Hubbard said MAP was established specifically to support both the needs of the university and Lane County communities during the pandemic.
“The MAP team has seen a significant increase in sample collections and sample processing this year, averaging 9,000 samples per week processed during the first two weeks of January,” Hubbard said. “During winter term, we are collecting as many as 1,300 samples per day at McArthur Court and averaging 800-900 most days, including walk-ins. During fall term, MAP was collecting around 400-500 samples on an average day.”
Student Samantha Hamilton said the MAP testing expansion is helpful for making testing more accessible, but that the process of setting up an appointment was confusing.
“I was a little bit confused about the registration process because it listed online that it was strictly walk-in,” Hamilton said. “So it’s a bit odd that we have to do registrations.”
Despite the confusion, Hamilton said the expansion is a lot better because it serves symptomatic testers. In her previous experience with COVID-19 testing, she said she had to leave campus because of the lack of symptomatic testing. She said a registration system for symptomatic testers could improve the process.
“I think having some sort of registration for symptomatic testers would be really nice, just so that we don’t have to deal with the line and possibly more exposure,” Hamilton said.
UO has additional COVID-19 testing information available online, as well as information for exposure scenarios.
