ORONO — The University of Maine System has entered into a partnership with Shield T3, a provider of COVID testing solutions associated with the University of Illinois System, that will provide capacity for approximately 16,000 high specificity and sensitivity COVID-19 PCR tests per week.  The agreement includes delivery of a mobile testing laboratory to the University of Maine in Orono where Shield T3 will process test results on site to eliminate the need to ship collected samples to out-of-state laboratories for processing.

Samples can be collected in less than three minutes and results can be delivered electronically to participants in less than 24 hours. The reported testing specificity, the capacity of a screening test to detect a true negative result, is between 99.8% and 99.9% yielding very few false positives. All positive samples are retested using the originally-collected sample to further reduce the chance of false positives.

“The public health commitment and leadership of our students, faculty, and staff got us through the fall semester together,” said Chancellor Dannel Malloy. “Thanks to additional resources authorized by Governor Mills, we will be able to test and report results promptly every week for every UMS community member who has in-person, on-campus experiences – a testing schedule that we believe is critical to maintaining our academic operations through the current state of the pandemic.”

Governor Janet Mills has been a strong supporter of the University of Maine System testing strategies, providing $6.5 million federal in CARES Act funds for reimbursement of fall testing expenses.

UMS Spring testing

The testing strategy for the spring semester will include the use of Shield T3’s non-invasive, saliva-based test to conduct weekly testing of the anticipated 16,400 members of the university community participating in in-person experiences scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 1. Weekly required testing will occur through commencement on May 8, 2021.

Before Feb. 1 the University of Maine System will be working with existing testing partners to conduct mandatory arrival testing of residential students, community members traveling from outside of Maine, and special populations before Jan. 25 start of spring semester classes. Immediate, required re-testing of the same cohorts will occur before the end of January. The arrival and re-testing will be similar to the strategy used successfully in the fall semester to ensure the return to campuses does not introduce COVID to university communities. Participants  will not be charged for any testing costs associated with the UMS spring asymptomatic testing strategies.

Students and employees traveling from outside of Maine will be required to bring documentation of a negative COVID-19 test administered from within 72 hours of arrival to campus. Information on community testing resources is being provided to students and employees and can be found at the end of this release.

 

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