DOVER, Del.,
Dec. 13, 2021
/PRNewswire/ -- A new research study on how frequent COVID testing
coupled with other safety measures enabled a historically Black
college to safely remain open even as many other universities shut
down their campuses has been published Monday by the JAMA Network
Open, a member of JAMA Network.
Delaware State University partnered
with nonprofit Testing for America as well as other public and
private supporters to develop a multi-pronged approach to
mitigating the spread of COVID so students could live and study on
campus for the 2020-21 school year, according to the peer-reviewed
JAMA Network Open report by Dr. Neil
Hockstein, a Delaware
physician and advisor to Testing for America.
Delaware State was among the first
public universities to develop a comprehensive plan for a safe
reopening even as the pandemic was disproportionately affecting
communities of color. Enabling students to be on campus was
essential to ensuring students would have access to housing, health
care, food, Internet services, and other essential resources.
DSU's testing program consisted of twice-a-week PCR testing
program for the 2,320 students, faculty and staff on campus from
August 2020 to April 2021. Donations and grants to fund testing
came from Illumina, Siemens, Cerner, Guardant Health, The
Rockefeller Foundation and Ginkgo Bioworks, among others.
The effort to re-open was not without risk, Hockstein noted.
There was not yet a vaccine in Fall 2020, and, in Delaware at the time, COVID infection rates
were 46 percent higher among those identifying as Black than those
identifying as white.
Testing was coupled with persistent messaging about shared
responsibility, wearing masks, hand-washing and social distancing,
and the outcome was a campus that remained safely open providing
academic and basic needs security to the campus population – with
no hospitalizations or deaths, according to the report. In fact,
the average weekly test positivity rate on campus remained below 1%
while the average was 5% percent statewide.
"The lessons from this study are important to consider today, as
we continue to contend with new COVID variants, the potential for
waning immunity, and breakthrough cases. All of these suggest
testing remains essential to identifying and containing the spread
of COVID," said Dr. Hockstein, of Testing for America.
The Biden administration has made testing a key pillar in its
effort to contain the virus. Testing is now required for many forms
of travel, dining, entertainment, and education.
Delaware State has continued regular
testing on campus this year, using its own molecular lab opened in
January 2021 in partnership with
New Castle County. The lab now
provides greater access to, and lowers the costs of, testing for
students as well as Delaware
residents, and provides a new site for hands-on experience for the
university's scientists-in-training, as well as testing for
Lincoln University, an HBCU in
Pennsylvania.
"Our partnership with Testing for America and others was not
only historic, but absolutely essential to our successful efforts
to keep our entire community safe without sacrificing the
educational opportunities and support our students need to change
their life trajectories," said Delaware State
University President Tony
Allen. "I'm proud this report is being published so the
efforts can serve as a model and a reminder of what can be
accomplished through collaboration."
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SOURCE Testing for America