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Syracuse University would be open to offering free COVID-19 testing to central New York residents even with the return of students to campus, said Mike Haynie, the vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation, in a press conference Monday.

On Jan. 3, SU announced that it would begin offering free COVID-19 testing to central New York residents as part of a negotiation between SU, SUNY schools and New York state.

“We are getting creative in our approach to make testing easier for New Yorkers,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at the time. “With testing now available at SUNY campuses and Syracuse University, we are expanding access across the state to make sure that we limit the spread of COVID-19.”

Testing was open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. between Jan 4-14 at the Carrier Dome. SU was the only private university in the state to do so, Syverud said in his winter message Monday.

Haynie said those dates were chosen because the university was dormant and a rise in cases made more available tests for residents a necessity.

“In the face of those first two weeks of January, coming right off the Christmas holiday, that’s when everyone expected testing infrastructure to be in the greatest demand across New York state,” he said. “So, we were asked if we could help. In a 10-minute phone call between (Syverud) and (Hochul), the chancellor said, ‘Absolutely.’”

Haynie said when students returned to campus this weekend, the infrastructure was repurposed to support arrival testing.

Of the arrival tests that SU processed as students arrived on campus, Haynie said 2.4% were positive. The positivity rate was higher than any proportion reported by SU’s COVID-19 dashboard so far.

Onondaga County, in turn, reported a 7-day positivity rate of almost 20% on Tuesday. In January 2022, the rate exceeded 25% for the first time ever.

Through the first week of community testing, SU reported in a press release that nearly 1,700 residents had taken part. Adam Hepburn, the executive director of operations in SU’s Office of Strategic Initiatives and Innovation, said in the release that community members who participated expressed their gratitude.

“There was a mother of five who brought her children with her to the Stadium Testing Center,” he said. “As she came through the site, she explained to us just how difficult a time she had in finding tests for her children in the community, and it would have cost her hundreds of dollars to get her kids tested. She was exceedingly pleased to have access to this testing resource on our campus.”

Though SU’s testing infrastructure could not be used for testing of New York residents while students were moving in, Haynie said the testing team is willing to extend the offer once more.

“As we get a better sense, moving forward, of our capacity, both the constraints and limitations, the assumption is the answer is going to be yes,” Haynie said. “We just have to figure out how to do it.”

Published on January 25, 2022 at 10:01 pm

Contact Richard: rcperrin@syr.edu | @richardperrins2