Given the low availability of COVID test kits and long turnaround times on receiving results, Monmouth College was given the advice that symptomatic testing is what made sense for their students, says President Dr. Clarence Wyatt:
“If we get to a point where testing is both more available and the turnaround times on them are shorter, then obviously that is something we will look at in terms of being able to take better advantage of. I think surveillance testing is the term. A lot of that is going to get determined by the availability and by the turnaround time on the results,” Wyatt reports.
President Wyatt shared that before athletics were suspended at the College, athletes were to be tested 72 hours prior to games and 24 hours after a game. Just for the football team and their five games that would have been played, it would have cost the college $170,000 to test every single athlete following those guidelines.
