USC to require on-campus students, faculty and staff to take a monthly COVID-19 test

The University of South Carolina will require the “vast majority” of students, faculty and staff to receive COVID-19 tests before returning to classes for spring semester, USC President Robert Caslen said in a letter Monday.

Similar to fall semester, anyone returning to the Columbia campus for spring semester will be required to prove they have been tested for coronavirus or coronavirus antibodies.

USC officials, in a press call Monday, lauded the school’s fall program requiring a COVID-19 test before moving into dorms, saying the policy had “100% compliance.” While that policy affected just students moving into dorms, the spring policy will apply to students living off campus as well.

The following types of tests will be accepted for students, USC’s website says.

• For students living in dorms, a negative test taken on or after Jan. 3, but before the student moves in
• For students living off campus, a negative test taken on or after Jan. 3 but no later than Jan. 10, the day before classes start,
• A positive test taken between Oct. 5 and Dec. 20
• A positive antibody test taken on or after Oct. 5

These time frames are in line with CDC guidelines, USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said. Though USC has maintained for months it has more coronavirus tests than it needs, USC will not require previously sick COVID-19 patients to provide a negative coronavirus test before returning to campus.

In-person classes resume on Jan. 11.

Asked why students, faculty or staff could return to campus before testing negative for coronavirus, said Deborah Beck, the executive director of Student Health Services, “Right now the CDC does not recommend you retest after 90 days after testing positive.”

Everyone who studies or works on campus will also be required to to have a COVID-19 test every 30 days, Caslen said.

“Our experts believe that this combined strategy of required pre-arrival testing, paired with required monthly testing, will create a safer and healthier environment for our community in the spring,” Caslen said in the letter. “We will continue to make testing as convenient as possible throughout the spring with expanded hours and locations.”

Those who refuse to get tested will be “subject to university sanctions,” but specific punishment is not specified, USC’s website says.

Coronavirus cases on USC’s Columbia campus have been ticking up since early November, USC data show.

USC’s recorded active coronavirus cases — 108 as of Friday — look far more optimistic than early September, when USC had more than 1,400 active COVID-19 cases on campus. However, fewer students getting tested, especially male students, has obscured the actual amounts of cases on USC’s campus.

Pharmaceutical companies have said a COVID-19 vaccine may be on the way. Once the vaccine becomes publicly available, USC will provide it for students, faculty and staff, but will not require it to attend class or work on campus, Beck said.

“Since we’re seeing those cases rise nationally, it is an opportunity, and in a sense and obligation for us,” to increase required testing, said Stacy Bradley, the senior associate vice president for Student Affairs and Academic Support.

This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 1:35 PM.