National Guard will test WSU students at Steptoe Village Apartments
Appointments are not necessary; students without insurance can expect WSU to pay for testing
Students need to bring their student ID numbers and insurance information, if they have it.
September 3, 2020
The National Guard will begin testing only WSU students, even if they are asymptomatic, without appointments in the upper parking lot of the Steptoe Village Apartments on Sept. 8.
Testing will tentatively start at 9 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. so as many students can be tested as possible. A National Guard unit of 25 members will test Tuesdays through Saturdays, said Phil Weiler, WSU’s vice president for marketing and communications. Although it hasn’t been specified how long the National Guard will be in Pullman, Weiler said they’ll be in town as long as they are needed.
Weiler said students will need to have their student ID numbers and insurance information to share with a staff member. Students with insurance will not have to pay a co-pay. If a student does not have insurance, WSU will cover the cost of testing, which otherwise would be $99.
The National Guard’s presence is expected to speed up the testing process because they have the capacity to collect hundreds of samples.
“It’s really, really critical that students take advantage of this,” Weiler said. “If we don’t end up getting ahead of this, we’re going to continue to see that the numbers of positives increase. We run the risk of it getting out of the student population to the general population, and then we run the risk of people dying from this illness.”
The method of testing has not been decided yet. Students will either walk up or drive through to do the testing, Weiler said.
The National Guard members will collect nose tissue samples, send the samples to the WSU One Health Diagnostics lab and inform people of their test results, he said.
There will be two test methods available, Weiler said. In the first method, the cotton swab is inserted high up into the sinuses. In the second option, the cotton swab is put just inside the nostril. Both test methods are equally reliable, he said.
The National Guard’s testing location will be 1630 NE Valley Rd., Weiler said. To test at that location, the National Guard had to work with a private property owner to set up the testing unit.
In an effort to decrease COVID-19 cases, students should not gather in large groups or travel over Labor Day weekend, Weiler said.
Armina • Sep 4, 2020 at 10:19 pm
I’m a resident at Septoe and choosing our housing as a location for testing, shows lack of empathy and responsibility of decision makers. From all possible places in the campus who would be more accommodating and suitable for this purpose, they chose grad students’ houses parking lot, and don’t care how much risk they put on grad students, let alone all the disturbance, noise and spreading germs, this decision will put on the tenants of Steptoe, while majority of the residents are grad student and they deserve a peacefull, quite place for study and research.
There are a lot of other options that would be more convenient and won’t put anyone at risk; Options that have been used frequently for RV parking for football matches, in the past.
All this aside, Greek community at WSU have shown very risky behaviour far from all health protocols and as we know most of the new cases are in the range of 18-25 year old, which directly points to these irresponsible behavior. Why WSU leaders won’t do anything about that?
Shahriar Safaee • Sep 4, 2020 at 10:07 pm
This is crazy! Our campus has a lot of open spaces that are not near to student housings. Steptoe Village is right now one of the most populated areas in campus (considering the majority of the tenants are grad students and families – mostly internationals) and running the tests near their buildings will expose the tenants to the risk of COVID. Let alone all the noise and crowd that this decision brings to the area (and apparently messes up with the calm environment that we need to work on our research), the question is that despite all the risks that this decision has for Steptoe Village tenants, why WSU did not select a more flexible and less crowded area for running the tests? Isn’t the reason for recent COVID escalation going back to the frat/sorority houses having parties and gather together every single night? Why doesn’t our university do something about those risky behaviors?