USC students line up around the block for COVID testing as virus spreads on campus
Zack Shapiro wanted to get tested for the coronavirus, but he worried that going to get the test on the University of South Carolina campus would cause more harm than good.
Shapiro was dissuaded from getting a test after he saw a long line of students stretching for a block up the street outside a campus testing site at 650 Lincoln St. After a snapping a picture of the crowd, he decided it would be best to come back another time.
“I thought if I did have something, I was only going to spread it in that line,” said Shapiro, a senior.
While everyone he could see was wearing a mask, he was concerned about the lack of social distancing on display in a line that included about a hundred people. “They were standing as close as you would if there wasn’t a virus,” he said.
Leaving was the right thing to do, according to the COVID-19 testing section of USC’s own website. “If you arrive and the line has exceeded the capacity of the sidewalk, we ask that you leave and come back when the line is more manageable,” the site says.
The site also says the university “has provided markers on the sidewalk outside the location that will enable individuals to line up in a physically distanced manner.”
USC has seen a spike of COVID-19 cases on campus since students returned two weeks ago. The university’s dashboard records 557 active cases as of Aug. 27. Since Aug. 1, 10,485 people have been tested on campus, with a student positive rate of 7.6%.
University public relations director Jeff Stensland said the number tested Monday was not yet known, but he saw the turnout as a positive for the Columbia campus.
“We’re encouraged that many students want to get tested,” Stensland said. “We are working on strategies to reduce wait times and eliminate long lines where distancing has been difficult to maintain.”
USC President Bob Caslen warned the university board of trustees last week the rise in cases could become “unsustainable,” and promised students could face suspension if caught violating quarantine or hosting house parties. He said the university could look at “shutdown options” if the problem continues to grow.
Six sorority houses in USC’s Greek Village have been quarantined, and on Saturday the Columbia Fire Department broke up a crowded pool party estimated at a couple hundred people at a student apartment building. Columbia City Council approved an ordinance targeting crowds gathered at rental houses just before students returned.
Vowing to try again to get a test on a less crowded day, Shapiro said he worried about how the virus was spreading, noting that the University of North Carolina has already moved classes online after seeing cases spike when campus reopened there, and Clemson University started its fall semester with all online courses.
“If 550 people in a week is not a problem, what are we waiting for?” he said.
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