NEWPORT – Staff and students at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center will be part of weekly voluntary coronavirus prevalence testing starting Monday.
OSU officials announced the program Wednesday for its campuses in Corvallis, Bend and Newport.
The so-called “TRACE” program will include weekly random prevalence testing of approximately 1,000 staff and students and include twice-a-week wastewater testing at the three campuses.
The testing is designed to help determine the prevalence of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Collected data will help planning and response by university administrators and county health officials, and whether individuals need to continue or increase their own protections.
Weekly prevalence results will be posted on the OSU TRACE website beginning the week of Oct. 5.
Being tested for the novel coronavirus is voluntary but encouraged by the university. All current students, faculty and staff living in the Newport, Corvallis, and Bend areas are invited to register for possible testing by enrolling here.
OSU officials said each week during fall term a representative group of students, faculty and staff will be selected at random from the registration pool and invited to be tested. There will also be two testing locations at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.
Under the guidance of TRACE staff, participants will provide a self-administered nasal swab to be analyzed with an FDA-approved test. Sampling will occur continuously during fall term and through the entire academic year if merited by public health conditions.
For the wastewater part of TRACE-OSU, researchers will sample sewage from locations across the Corvallis campus weekly, with a particular focus on student housing, as well as sampling wastewater from locations at the Hatfield Marine Science Center and OSU-Cascades.
Samples taken from wastewater treatment plants in Newport, Corvallis and Bend will also be analyzed for genetic evidence of the virus. Trends will be monitored to determine whether the viral signal in wastewater is getting stronger, weaker or staying the same.
If SARS-CoV-2 is detected downstream of any student housing facility, Oregon State may ask everyone in the facility to be individually tested. Results from the wastewater testing will be reported to county health departments and the Oregon Health Authority.
Neither of the programs are new to Lincoln County. After the large workplace coronavirus outbreak at Pacific Seafood in Newport, OSU field workers twice came to Newport to voluntary sample residents. The OSU coronavirus wastewater surveillance program has also tested sewage in Newport, Yachats and other municipalities in the county.