All USA Students to be Tested for COVID-19

---

Posted on August 3, 2020

Lance Crawford

---

All University of South Alabama students planning to return to campus this fall will receive a free COVID-19 test. The required testing is a part of South's reopening plan; it is offered through the GuideSafe entry to campus program provided by the University of Alabama at Birmingham and supported by CARES Act funding through the State of Alabama.

Any USA student who plans to physically be present on the campus for classes, meetings, jobs, extracurricular activities, events or for any other reason will have to provide documentation of a COVID-19 test. Students participating in fully online courses and who will not be physically present on campus do not need to be tested.

“While we cannot completely eliminate risk, we are taking as many steps as we possibly can to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus, and testing each of our students is an important step in that process,” Dr. Michael Mitchell, vice president of student affairs said.

All USA students will receive an email with information about scheduling their COVID-19 test. Students may be directed to the testing center on the USA campus at the Mitchell Center or another site within Alabama, or they may be provided with a self-test kit to administer at home and send in.

If a student has tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 12 weeks, they do not need to re-test at this time. Instead, they should send a copy of their positive test result and medical clearance from a healthcare provider to StudentHealth@SouthAlabama.edu.

For more information, please visit the student section of the USA reopening website or the GuideSafe testing website.

---