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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: February 4, 2021
Institute Communications
Summary Sentence:
Since last fall the Institute’s regular testing of students, faculty, and staff has kept the number of positive cases relatively low on campus.
Full Summary:
Since last fall the Institute’s regular testing of students, faculty, and staff has kept the number of positive cases relatively low on campus.
Surveillance Testing Kit
Tiff's Treats on Tech Green
Stick to It This week Georgia Tech surpassed 200,000 Covid-19 tests collected and processed on campus since surveillance testing began last fall. The Institute’s regular testing of students, faculty, and staff has kept the number of positive cases relatively low on campus.
In January Georgia Tech, in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), began administering Covid-19 vaccines. Health experts recommend that, even though the vaccine is being administered, weekly surveillance testing should continue.
“Studies show that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are effective at preventing severe illness from Covid-19. What we don’t know yet is how effective they are at preventing asymptomatic infection and whether they prevent people from carrying the virus and spreading it to other people,” said Dr. Ben Holton, senior director of Stamps Health Services. “That’s why the current recommendations from the CDC are, even if you’ve had two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, you still need to wear a mask and practice social distancing, because we don’t know yet if you can spread the virus after being vaccinated. We are encouraging people to continue getting tested after they have had the vaccine.”
Testing is done on a walk-up basis, is free of charge, and takes just a few minutes. Participants should login to mytest.gatech.edu with their Georgia Tech account, complete the survey, and generate a tracking barcode for the test before visiting one of the testing sites on campus,
The samples are transferred to the test lab three times a day for evaluation. To reduce the number of polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests that must be run each day, the saliva samples are pooled so that a single test can examine samples from five individuals. An innovative dual pooling strategy can identify one individual in a set of samples who is presumed positive.
The surveillance and diagnostic testing is normally completed within 36 to 48 hours, allowing contact tracers to identify other community members who may have been exposed.
Surveillance testing participants may notice they are asked to reconsent before their next test when they visit mytest.gatech.edu. The lab will now perform additional tests to identify the strain of virus, for the purpose of informing policy to help keep campus safe. The reconsent acknowledges this fact. Individuals will not be provided the strain information, since it does not change any follow-up procedures for a positive result.
Continued surveillance testing is important in identifying asymptomatic Covid-19 members of the Tech community and keeping the daily case counts low.
