The MU Student Health Center opened a temporary outdoor COVID-19 testing site earlier this week on campus as the number of positive cases rises in Boone County.
The site, which is open by appointment only, is located outside of the Sustainability Office on the west side of the Virginia Avenue Parking Structure, according to MU spokesperson Liz McCune.
McCune said testing is available for students with orders from the Student Health Center. Students can get these orders by calling the center and speaking with a registered nurse or doctor. It is up to the provider to determine the need for a test, based on factors such as whether the student is symptomatic or if the student has been exposed as determined by contact tracers.
While operational between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays, the testing site is not available for walk-up testing, McCune said. She described the opening of the site, which is marked by signs indicating where students enter and exit and two black-and-gold canopies, as a “soft launch.”
The Health Center makes arrangements with students who have orders regarding when to meet at the testing site. McCune affirmed that the testing site “will open as needed to accommodate appointments” and might shift to a more fluid schedule as the semester progresses.
Eric Maze, MU Health Care spokesperson, said that “all of our sites still currently require a provider’s order.”
Boone County had 64 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, a record high for the county. There were 481 tests administered Wednesday. Scott Clardy, assistant director of the Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services, said that results typically take a 24- to 48-hour window to be processed so the positive cases Thursday cannot be attributed to that number of tests administered Wednesday.
Zoe Westhoff, 21, a senior at MU, has concerns about the way the university is sharing information about COVID-19 testing. She’s received numerous emails but found it hard to distinguish between emails about the university’s plans versus those describing actions she needs to take. “I guess they just need to be more straightforward with it, instead of just beating around the bush,” she said.
The Health Center plans to open a permanent indoor testing location by the end of August, McCune said. It will be located in an old Human Resources office base located within the west side of Parking Structure #7, 1095 Virginia Ave.
A previous drive-thru testing site near the Hearnes Center and Mizzou Softball Stadium closed Aug. 3, according to an MU Health Care news release. MU Health Care continues to offer testing from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at a drive-thru site at Mizzou North, 115 Business Loop 70 W. This site was opened July 13.
MU Health Care does not plan to reopen the Hearnes Center location, Maze said in an email.
“However, we have infrastructure in place and flexibility to resume operations at the Hearnes location if needed in the event testing volume increases and we cannot accommodate the demand at the Mizzou North drive-thru testing location,” Maze wrote.