On-campus residence hall move-in includes mandatory drive-through COVID-19 testing at Memorial Stadium.
(Ethan Burks)
Indiana University still has 10,000 students to test for COVID-19 before classes start Monday. University officials sent out an email Tuesday night asking some staff to encourage off-campus students to sign-up for a testing slot as soon as possible.
The email said students who have not signed up for testing by midnight Thursday could lose access to some of IU’s online systems.
Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine Aaron Carroll says IU has the capability to test thousands of students a day, but not every student needs to be tested.
“Because they’re not on campus, never planning to come on campus, not being anywhere near campus, not interacting with anyone, or any students, they’re sheltering in place, perhaps even in their parents’ houses. Such students don’t need to be tested and they’ll be able to opt out,” said Carroll, who also is Director of Surveillance and Mitigation for the COVID-19 Pandemic at IU.
Carroll said two-thirds of IU's classes are online.
Indiana University students began moving in to on-campus residences 10 days ago as part of the university’s expanded Fall move-in process, which includes mandatory drive-through COVID-19 testing at Memorial Stadium.
IU Bloomington Provost Lauren Robel said that testing is going according to expectations.
“We have so far done more than 8,000 tests on students moving into congregate living situations, and the positivity rate has been consistently around 1-percent,” she said in an email to staff Wednesday.
She said 6,000 off-campus students have also been tested and the 1-percent positivity rate is in line with expectations.
