As students settle into the Spring semester, saliva-based COVID-19 testing has ramped up to help seat students in face-to-face classes.
Drive-thru testing is available at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts alongside walk-up testing at gate 7 of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and the ground floor of garage 4 between Newell Drive and Broward Drive.
Many professors elected to move the first day of in-person sections online as students wait for a “cleared” status on their One.UF portal. Students are cleared for campus after taking a test, not after receiving a negative result. If a student tests positive, their status will change to “not cleared”.
Since Jan. 4, 17,662 UF-affiliated employees and students have tested negative and 367 have tested positive for COVID-19. Since then, the 7-day average for positive percentage rate has remained at about 2%, according to UF’s COVID-19 dashboard.
UF isolation/quarantine room availability for students living on campus sits at 4% capacity as of Tuesday. Meanwhile, 1,119 UF-affiliated employees and students are currently in isolation or quarantine, almost double the last reported number of 607 individuals by the Alligator on Dec. 7.
Contact Manny Rea at mrea@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @ReaManny.
Manny Rea is a journalism sophomore and the current health reporter for The Alligator. He worked as a copy editor in his freshman year before moving over to the Avenue in summer 2020. He likes to listen to dollar-bin records and read comics, and he is patiently waiting to go back to movies and concerts.
