Good morning,
Effective today, SUNY Old Westbury is launching a testing program as a means to survey the prevalence of COVID-19 in our campus community. This program is consistent with the recent SUNY policy requiring all campuses to conduct surveillance testing for COVID-19.
In short, we are asking all at Old Westbury to “Defend the Den” by adhering to the new testing protocol along with our now-standard face covering, social distancing, symptom reporting, and hygiene awareness efforts.
Each week, students who visit campus will be tested for COVID-19 at random and all faculty and staff who come to campus will be urged to undergo testing multiple times during the remainder of the semester. The College will collect samples using nasal swabs. This form of testing was selected due to the reduced number of people visiting campus during the semester and to ensure the fastest, most accurate results for all in our community.
Professionals from our Student Health Center will be collecting samples from students and employees via pop-up testing sites on random days each week. While there is no fee related to taking the sample, your insurance company will be asked to cover the cost of the analysis, so please bring your College ID and insurance card with you any time you come to campus. Enzo Clinical Labs will analyze the collected samples with an expected turnaround of results in 1-3 days. Results will be reported to each participant by Dr. Ellen Feit, the campus’ senior medical advisor.
In addition, if you are tested outside the College’s “Defend the Den” program and receive a positive result, please report that result immediately to the Student Health Center (students) or Office of Human Resources (faculty and staff).
Aggregate totals from testing and self-reported results are reported through the COVID-19 Status Page on the SUNY Old Westbury website.
Understanding whether and how COVID-19 is impacting our campus must be a priority for all members of our community. As we collectively “Defend the Den,” we will be able to show each other, and the greater Long Island community, that SUNY Old Westbury is committed to providing a healthy, safe and productive educational environment for all who study and work here.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation as we “Defend the Den.”
Teresa A. Miller
Officer-in-Charge
