Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr 12;43(1):82-88.
doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdaa194.

Norwich COVID-19 testing initiative pilot: evaluating the feasibility of asymptomatic testing on a university campus

T Berger Gillam  1 , J Cole  1 , K Gharbi  2 , E Angiolini  3 , T Barker  2 , P Bickerton  4 , T Brabbs  2 , J Chin  5 , E Coen  6 , S Cossey  7 , R Davey  7 , R Davidson  1 , A Durrant  2 , D Edwards  1 , N Hall  7   8 , S Henderson  2 , M Hitchcock  9 , N Irish  2 , J Lipscombe  2 , G Jones  4 , G Parr  5 , S Rushworth  1 , N Shearer  2 , R Smith  1 , N Steel  1
Affiliations

Norwich COVID-19 testing initiative pilot: evaluating the feasibility of asymptomatic testing on a university campus

T Berger Gillam et al. J Public Health (Oxf). .

Abstract

Background: There is a high prevalence of COVID-19 in university-age students, who are returning to campuses. There is little evidence regarding the feasibility of universal, asymptomatic testing to help control outbreaks in this population. This study aimed to pilot mass COVID-19 testing on a university research park, to assess the feasibility and acceptability of scaling up testing to all staff and students.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional feasibility study on a university research park in the East of England. All staff and students (5625) were eligible to participate. All participants were offered four PCR swabs, which they self-administered over two weeks. Outcome measures included uptake, drop-out rate, positivity rates, participant acceptability measures, laboratory processing measures, data collection and management measures.

Results: 798 (76%) of 1053 who registered provided at least one swab; 687 (86%) provided all four; 792 (99%) of 798 who submitted at least one swab had all negative results and 6 participants had one inconclusive result. There were no positive results. 458 (57%) of 798 participants responded to a post-testing survey, demonstrating a mean acceptability score of 4.51/5, with five being the most positive.

Conclusions: Repeated self-testing for COVID-19 using PCR is feasible and acceptable to a university population.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow of participants through the study and main results.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Participant responses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Policy Paper: Slides to Accompany Coronavirus Press Conference: 9 September 2020. Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street. p. 2.
    1. Davies NG, Klepac P, Liu Y et al. . Age-dependent effects in the transmission and control of COVID-19 epidemics. Nature Medicine. 2020;26(8):1205–11. - PubMed
    1. Fancourt D, Bu F, Mak H, Steptoe A. Covid-19 social study: results release 17. UCL. 2020;5.
    1. Gressman PT, Peck JR. Simulating COVID-19 in a university environment. Mathematical Biosciences. 2020;328:108436. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Weeden K, Cornwell B. The small-world network of college classes: implications for epidemic spread on a university campus. Sociological Science. 2020;7(9):222–41.

Publication types