Dear members of the Athens State community:
As a reminder, Athens State will be conducting Sentinel Testing for faculty, staff, and on-campus students in partnership with the GuideSafe™ program. Sentinel Testing involves testing a random sample of Athens State’s population weekly to help monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 in our campus community. Each week, we intend to randomly test at least three percent of our on-campus population.
Please visit healthy.verily.com and create an account using your Athens State email address to be included in the Sentinel Testing program.
After answering a few basic questions and verifying your email, your account will be created; you are all done for now.
Randomly-selected individuals will receive an email from Verily (healthy@verily.com) directing them to sign-up for a testing appointment on campus during the next seven days. Please check your Athens State email regularly to see if you have been selected as part of the randomized testing. If you are randomly selected, you will be prompted in the email to log-in to your Verily account and request a test.
Sentinel Testing is intended for individuals who are not exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. As part of scheduling your test through Verily, you will be asked to report if you are experiencing symptoms. If your responses show you are symptomatic, you will be asked not to test through this program.
On the day of your testing appointment, you will arrive at McCandless Hall and check-in with your photo ID. Please wear a mask or similar face covering as directed by campus policy. After check-in, you will be given a test kit that includes a nasal swab that you will self-administer with observation. The swab process takes less than a minute. The observer will help guide you through the process. After you have completed your self-swab, you will seal your sample in the included test tube and storage bag and turn it in to a member of the collection team at the testing location. The Sentinel Testing process typically takes 5-7 minutes from arrival to departure.
Each testing day, samples are delivered to the laboratory for processing. Results are typically provided within 24-48 hours from arrival at the lab and will be delivered to Student Affairs and/or Human Resources, depending on whether you are a student or employee. In addition, you will be contacted by email to access your individual test results. If you test positive for COVID-19, you will receive a call from a healthcare provider to give you next steps on how to protect yourself and others around you.
Sentinel Testing aims to help monitor levels of COVID-19 on campus and identify potential outbreaks. We all have a role to play in keeping our campus as healthy as possible.
Thank you for your participation in the Sentinel Testing program.
