MDH hosts community COVID-19 testing site at HCC

To manage and monitor the impact of COVID-19 on the CSB/SJU campuses, daily meetings with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and administration from CSB/ SJU occur. Last week during one of these meetings, the MDH asked if CSB would be willing to provide a location for a community testing event. Due to our facility availability, a partnership between CSB, Stearns County and St. Cloud Technical and Community College formed, all working together to meet the goals of the MDH’s testing event.

Marcia Mahlum, a CSB Student Development Member-Divisional Operations Officer-Deputy Title IX Coordinator, discussed CSB’s involvement with the MDH’s event. The MDH coordinated COVID-19 testing to be a two-lane event. This, along with staffing availability, enabled 600 tests to occur each day from noon to 6 p.m., Oct. 6-8. Each test is used to detect if a person has an active case of COVID-19. This can be done with a nasal swab, which is then tested for the Corona virus’s genetic material.

According to a flyer put out by the CSB Health Center, a positive test results in isolation. A negative test, with COVID-19 symptoms, also results in isolation, but a negative test with known COVID-19 exposure results in a 14-day quarantine.

To ensure that the highest volume of tests can be completed, there is a registration link available to CSB/SJU students and the entire community which sets a testing time appointment. Each appointment takes about 3-5 minutes. The Minnesota National Guard will meet each person at their scheduled time, register and check-in each person, and then coordinate with nurses who are completing the testing process.

Asymptomatic testing and its relation to the spread of COVID-19 is also important.

“By increasing access to testing, and early identification of COVID-19, can both work together to keep schools and our economy open. It also works to help educate about any misunderstanding which may be occurring with COVID-19, and it helps build a strategy to prevent spread,” Mahlum said. If anyone was unable to get tested this week at CSB, the MDH has organized other community testing events in Stearns County and across Minnesota.