LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — To keep the campus safe, the University of Kentucky has some new initiatives, including random student testing through the rest of the semester.
About 400 students were randomly selected to be retested for the coronavirus. That mandatory retesting starts Monday and will take place through the rest of the week.
The testing is free and is only for students attending in-person classes on campus.
The university recently started testing wastewater in the residence halls occupied by roughly 6,500 students. So far, traces of the virus have been detected in a couple of buildings. Over the weekend, retesting started on some students living in the affected residence halls, unless the student has already tested positive for COVID-19.
University officials say data they get from these tests will continue to help them make health and safety decisions down the line.
“We’re taking these additional tests and I would describe them as tools that we’re adding to our toolbox over time,” said UK spokesperson Jay Blanton. “They give us additional measures to help ensure that we’re keeping our campus healthy and safe and also getting a good sense of what’s occurring with the virus.”
Both the wastewater testing and the random retesting with continue throughout the semester.
