The University of Wyoming has changed its COVID-19 testing policy for incoming students for the spring of 2022.
The previous plan was centered around mandated testing for all on-campus staff and students during the week before the start of the semester.
This policy has been redacted over worries about the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
“Positivity rates are now growing rapidly, and the risk of creating an environment for further transmission at a mass testing event likely would offset information we would gain from it,” President Seidel said in a press release.
The Jan. 12 to 16 testing period was planned as a repeat of the mandatory testing last August at the beginning of the fall semester.
“Contrary to the testing period in the fall, this one promised to have large numbers of positives” Chad Baldwin, the Associate Vice President of Institutional Communications, said. “Another concern was putting 10 thousand people in a confined space at once, the positives would probably be outweighed by the negatives” Baldwin said.
The Presidential COVID Advisory Board, which Baldwin is a part of, includes the Director of Student Health Services Mary Beth Bender, Director of the State Veterinarian Laboratory Dr. William Laegreid, and Dean of the College of Health Sciences Dr. David L. Jones as group chair.
“The group concluded that moving forward with mass testing would not be in the best interest of our campus community,” Baldwin said. “There is already good evidence that the omicron variant is widespread in the community.”
The first cases of the Omicron variant within the University of Wyoming were observed on Dec. 17 before the winter break began. As of Jan. 19, 96 Omicron cases were reported in Albany County by the Wyoming Department of Health. This data was cited by Baldwin as reasoning behind this decision.
Dr. David L. Jones said, “Around the time of the decision, about 20% of tests in Albany county were positive.”
“If 20% of people are positive of the 10 thousand, there is a high chance of most pools showing positive, then you’ve got possibly 8,000 people coming in to get tested again,” Jones said.
Voluntary testing will remain available to all students and faculty, and the previously-used method of weekly random-sample testing of 3% of on-campus population resumed on Jan. 18.
To read about UW’s new free KN95 masks program, click here.
