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UAH continuing with sentinel testing every week

Each week, a random sample of people are tested to determine how COVID-19 is spread on college campuses.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Colleges in Alabama are continuing with sentinel testing.

The University of Alabama in Huntsville is one of over 40 colleges participating in the testing.

Sentinel testing is coordinated through GuideSafe. Students, faculty and staff can all participate in the testing.

Each week, a random sample of people are tested to determine how COVID-19 is spread and to monitor the presence of the virus on college campuses.

They started sentinel testing in September and have given around 8,000 tests as of October 8th. Just over 0.4 % of people have tested positive so far.

GuideSafe Entry Testing Executive Director Bob Phillips said, "What we want to do with sentinel testing is be able to test and monitor those folks who are not demonstrating symptoms to sort of root it out early and avoid that asymptomatic spread."

Sentinel testing is being done on 4-year and 2-year college campuses. The testing will continue throughout the fall semester.

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