WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — William & Mary is ramping up its COVID-19 testing.
This week, the college conducted a second round of testing for all students who will be on campus this fall. This is being done because William & Mary’s initial round was several weeks ago and based on patterns the college is seeing at other campuses.
On-site testing will continue through Friday, September 18.
William & Mary developed a COVID-19 testing protocol in partnership with the VCU Health System and Kallaco Health and Technology. Kallaco is a comprehensive, integrated wellness company with a robust network of national labs.
Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories is analyzing the tests. Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories is a fully CAP and CLIA accredited high complexity laboratory, employing gold standard RT-PCR COVID-19 testing in accordance with all FDA guidance and standards.
Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories uses TaqPath COVID-19 Combo Kit (105KB), which is an EAU approved test.
However, there are concerns surrounding the college's previous testing partners not receiving an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA.
Opteo was the lab that processed much of the university’s pre-arrival testing. The college said while they have confidence in the science behind these tests, their contract states that all tests sent from Kallaco to the community must receive FDA authorization.
William & Mary was assured that Opteo’s tests, including self-collection tests, were covered through the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). The college said FDA-EUA approval guidance has shifted several times over the past few months. As a CLIA-certified lab, Opteo’s testing procedures must be rigorously validated well beyond the rapid-turnaround FDA approval process under COVID-19. William & Mary changed labs until it has a clearer answer to Opteo’s authorizations.
The campus said given their results so far, they believe pre-arrival testing has proved useful, by screening out a meaningful number of asymptomatic positive cases that therefore did not come to campus.
