USD offers additional COVID-19 testing

USD’s Sentinel Testing program is now allowing up to 100 volunteers per week to participate in COVID-19 testing in addition to randomly selected students, faculty and staff.

The change to the program came in response to numerous requests for volunteer testing, according to an email sent to the student body.

Anyone who is asymptomatic, has not tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 90 days and works or attends school at USD’s Vermillion campus is eligible to get tested.

Drive-through testing takes place Tuesday and Wednesday from 2-3:30 p.m. at the Sanford Vermillion Medical Center. The university will also provide a shuttle van from Slagle Hall to the medical center at the same time.

The testing is intended to surveil 5% of USD’s population, as recommended by the South Dakota Department of Health.

“You may be asking yourself why you would voluntarily subject yourself to a test that if positive, requires you to isolate for a period of time,” Tim Ridgway, Dean of the Sanford School of Medicine, said in the email. “It is one of the most genuine, altruistic gestures you can do!”