UMass Amherst will likely do considerably more COVID-19 testing of students and staff than originally announced — at a considerable cost.
UMass is conducting about 15,000 tests per week, up from an initial estimate of 10,000, according to spokesman Ed Blaguszewski.
That includes required twice-weekly tests for students living on-campus, recommended twice-weekly for those off campus, and varied frequency for faculty and staff.
“We're one of the largest testing centers in the state in terms of total number of tests,” Blaguszewski said. “And we want more people to come in. But to a large degree, we think we've been successful.”
Blaguszewski said widespread testing is critical to protect the community, as positive cases have recently gone up among UMass students living off campus.
The town of Amherst recently entered the state’s red zone for COVID-19 rates.
The university’s investment in the testing protocol is “substantial,” Blaguszewski said.
UMass has a testing contract with the Broad Institute, which charges $25 per test. That could add up to $3 or $4 million by the end of the semester. And that’s not including the cost of running the testing at the Mullins Center sports arena, Blaguszewski said.
“It takes time, it takes people, it takes money,” he said. “We're very committed to doing all that we can. But, you know, obviously there are limits to this, and we need to navigate that going forward.”
Blaguszewski said there is currently no maximum budget for testing. But scientists at the Institute of Applied Life Sciences at UMass are working on developing a COVID-19 test that can be conducted on campus and save money for the university.
Out of the 76,000 tests reported on the UMass COVID-19 dashboard on October 8, 133 were positive. Thirty-three of those are considered part of the same off-campus cluster.
Off-campus students account for more than three-quarters of the testing so far.
Blaguszewski said the school has issued a "directive" that they test twice a week, but it does not aggressively enforce it.
“If you become very confrontational with folks, whether they're students or otherwise, you may deter them from participating in contact tracing. You may deter them from participating in testing,” he said.
UMass has also agreed to test first responders from Amherst once a week, at the town’s expense.
Not all colleges can test equally
While UMass and other western Massachusetts colleges are ramping up COVID-19 testing, not all schools have the resources for widespread testing.
American International College (AIC) in Springfield and Amherst College both have fewer than 1,000 students on campus, but their approach to testing is very different.
Amherst College conducts almost 4,000 COVID-19 tests a week among asymptomatic students and staff. Four tests have come back positive since July.
An Amherst spokesman said the school expects to do about 60,000 tests over the course of the semester, costing about $1.5 million.
By comparison, AIC has done fewer than 200 tests total, according to vice president Matt Scott. He said tests are reserved for people with symptoms, those who traveled to a high-risk state and close contacts of positive cases.
Since AIC pays $100 to Baystate Medical Center for each test, Scott said the college just can’t afford widespread testing. So they're relying on prevention through social distancing and mask use.
“We're being much more stringent on some of those things because …we're not able to test as much as some of these other institutions are,” Scott said.
AIC students on campus are not allowed any guests, including from other dorms, and may not gather in groups of more than four. Students who travel to high-risk states must quarantine when they return, though Scott acknowledged the college cannot easily confirm who is traveling.
So far, the school’s testing has revealed two positive cases among students and five cases among staff, though, without asymptomatic testing, there could be more unknown cases.
In order to relax the rules in the future, especially for athletes, Scott said AIC has ordered a machine to do rapid COVID-19 tests on campus. That method — using a saliva-based antigen test — is not considered as accurate as PCR tests using nose swabs, but Scott said it will help with general surveillance, and allow more students to compete in contact sports.
“We don't we don't always want to be as restrictive as we are right now,” Scott said. “We want to ensure that our students have the best experience they can, while understanding that we are still in a global health crisis that we need to take very seriously.”
A testing middle ground
Two other schools in Springfield have moderate testing protocols — somewhere between widespread and high-risk only.
Western New England University tested everyone at the beginning of the semester, and now does surveillance testing on a sample of the overall campus population — costing about $500,000 so far, according to spokesman David Stawasz.
Stawasz said the school is “prepared to ramp up the number of tests should conditions dictate,” and anyone with symptoms can get a COVID-19 test at the campus health center.
“One of the biggest logistical challenges has been shifting guidance from public health officials,” he wrote in an email. “For example, over the summer the CDC did not advise to conduct entry testing for students. We decided to move forward with entry testing believing it was in the best interests of our students. Since then, the CDC has shifted its guidance. It’s part of the learning curve related to the virus.”
Springfield College tests 10% to 20% of students randomly, according to spokesman Damon Markiewicz. If a student refuses to comply when selected, they must quarantine, and may be banned from campus.
Markiewicz said when three positive COVID-19 cases were identified in the same residence hall, the three students were isolated and the rest of the dorm had to quarantine for 14 days — taking all classes remotely and getting meals delivered.
