Campus Testing & Testing Results

Campus Testing

Testing the Colby-Sawyer community for COVID-19 is a major component of the CSC Safe Return Plan as health experts consistently advise that testing is paramount to controlling the spread of the virus. It is important to detect infections before transmission since a large percentage of transmission occurs from people who do not know they are infected. To implement our testing plan, Colby-Sawyer has partnered with Broad Institute, one of the leading biomedical labs in the country.

Colby-Sawyer’s COVID-19 Testing Plan

CSC Safe Return Phases I and II testing – upon return to campus, all students, faculty and staff are tested.

Symptomatic Testing

Baird Health and Counseling Center (BHCC) will conduct rapid antigen testing for symptomatic students.  Students that wish to be tested for travel or other non-symptomatic or non-exposure related reasons with be referred to state testing at NH.gov. Symptomatic employees should contact their primary care provider.

Ongoing Testing

A random sampling of Colby-Sawyer community members will be individually tested weekly via Broad Institute to identify infected but non-symptomatic individuals. This surveillance testing is planned for Wednesday each week.  Varsity athletes will participate in weekly testing based on the risk level of the sport played.  This testing will be done via SIREM pooled saliva test and done on Monday mornings starting Feb 1.

The CSC Safe Return Plan includes entry testing, symptomatic testing and ongoing and regular testing for everyone on campus. Testing upon arrival to campus requires each residential student to quarantine in one’s residence hall room as outlined in the CSC Safe Return Plan. Testing is then ongoing for the course of the semester with a changing pool of students, faculty and staff on a weekly basis. The testing schedule is managed by the Baird Health and Counseling Center in concert with Human Resources.

The testing procedure will require students and employees to self swab their lower anterior nasal cavities at our designated on-campus testing location-. This test is relatively non-invasive and will be self-administered. A contracted courier service will deliver the tests to the Broad lab and we expect to have the results in 24-48 hours. Individuals will receive an e-mail from CRSP.careevolve to access their individual test results.  Persons that have inconclusive test results or a positive test will not receive an e-mail but will be contacted by Baird or HR directly l with instructions on next steps.

Contact Tracing

Colby-Sawyer College will work in collaboration with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to conduct contact tracing for students, faculty and staff. Multiple Colby-Sawyer employees have been certified in contact tracing if needed.

Testing Definitions

Isolation

Isolation is defined as the separation of a person who is known, or reasonably believed to be, infected with a communicable disease and are potentially infectious from those who are not infected so as to prevent the spread of the communicable disease. Isolation for Colby-Sawyer purposes may be voluntary or compelled by a campus authority. People in New Hampshire who are in isolation are also under active monitoring.

Quarantine

Quarantine is defined as the separation of a person exposed to a communicable disease, but not yet symptomatic, from others who have not been exposed so as to prevent the possible spread of the communicable disease. Quarantine for Colby-Sawyer purposes may be voluntary or compelled by a campus authority. NOTE: Students and employees experiencing COVID19-like symptoms, or any other illness, are to “stay in” so as not to expose others to potential illness. This may include roommates without symptoms if the symptomatic person is pending a test result. There is no defined time period to this process which can be concluded when the person does not have a fever without medication and symptoms are improving. Persons who are “staying in” and are not known to have COVID-19 or been directly exposed to the virus are not recorded in the above figures.