As St. Thomas students prepare for holiday travel, the university has begun offering test options to send students back home to their families COVID-19 free.

Asymptomatic testing, which is now offered through the Center for Well-Being, was introduced for contact tracing purposes and to help maintain the spread of COVID-19. On Nov. 18 and 19, the university offered free asymptomatic testing to all St. Thomas community members.

The Center For Well-Being’s Director of Operations Luis de Zengotita believes the new tests will help students remain healthy on campus.

“We’re just trying to do what we can from a public health perspective to give people the options to stay as safe as possible,” de Zengotita said.

Students planning on traveling home for the upcoming holiday took advantage of the free asymptomatic testing event. Sophomore Merrit Stoltzman wants to do everything she can to keep her family safe at Thanksgiving this year.

“I’ll be going home for Thanksgiving and I want to make sure that if I’m around my family, like my grandparents, I’m not getting them sick,” Stoltzman said.

St. Thomas staff members also took advantage of the free tests. Vice President of Business Affairs Mark Vangsgard took his first COVID-19 test in the St. Thomas field house.

“I was here, it was free and I wanted to know if I had COVID-19,” Vangsgard said. He added that being tested at St. Thomas “is easy.”

While standard and asymptomatic COVID-19 tests have the same timeline of two to three days, facilities offering both tests have been hit hard by students and staff who want to get tested before heading home for the holidays. On campus, de Zengotita and his team have had to adapt to the higher testing volume.

“It’s a delicate balance of trying to prioritize our tests for symptomatic students and then trying to open up capacity for those asymptomatic tests to help our community feel safer when they’re going back to see family,” de Zengotita said. “With the increased number of tests, it’s always a moving target.”

Director of Student Affairs Rachel Harris was one of the organizers of the COVID-19 testing event. She said it’s important to offer these tests to college students because their age group is more prone to being asymptomatic.

“The more we test, the more information we know,” Harris said. “The research has shown that oftentimes in this age group there are individuals who have no symptoms but are carrying the virus.”

While maintaining the number of COVID-19 cases is a top priority for St. Thomas, Harris said the university is prepared to adjust if it sees a higher number of cases after the testing event.

“We have pivoted our quarantine and isolation so that we are ready to be able to house up to 300 if there is a need for that,” Harris said.

De Zengotitia added that it’s important for students to contact the Center for Well-Being if they think they have COVID-19 or are showing symptoms; it’s one of the ways that the Center for Well-Being can test students and follow up with them during their quarantine.

“Reach out to our team,” de Zengotita said. “We have a dedicated nurse line who can talk with you; they’re a great team, well-trained clinicians who can help figure out for you if a test is needed.”

Leila Weah can be reached at weah7721@stthomas.edu.