More than 1,100 hostel residents have registered to take their free COVID-19 test from today to Saturday 23 January 2020 at NUS. The six-day testing exercise is conducted as part of the COVID-19 testing regime extended to residents staying at four autonomous universities in Singapore.
In the email circular sent by Office of Student Affairs on 15 December 2020, residents were strongly encouraged to undergo this free COVID-19 testing as it will enable the university to better monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 and contain any asymptomatic cases in the community quickly.
For this exercise, the Antigen rapid test (ART) which uses a swab taken through the nostril, from the back of the nasal passage, is being administered.
Mr Aegan Tan, Year 2, UTR resident was the first in line to receive his swab. He arrived at the Multi-Purpose Sports Hall (MPSH) 1’s registration booth at 8:30am, half an hour before the site was opened for testing. Aegan who is also the President of NUS NUS Society of Mechanical Engineering, said: “I felt a slight discomfort when the swabber inserted the swab into my nostril, but it was still bearable.” He added: “It’s great to know that students can go for this free test and that NUS is taking precaution to keep us safe”.
Mr Emeth Lu, Operations Manager from the Health Promotion Board (HPB), who was coordinating today’s one-off COVID-19 ART explained: “The test can produce results in less than 30 minutes, unlike polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that usually take a day or two.” He said that students will receive a mobile text confirmation indicating the results and need not wait around. This efficient process reduces waiting time, and more students can be swabbed as a result.
Bottom: Aegan getting ready for his swab test by HPB officers.
----
Final Call for Registration for COVID-19 Testing
If you have not signed up for this one-off COVID-19 swab test, you can do so by logging in to nus.edu/covid19test to reserve your slot.
Share:
Contributor
Office of Student Affairs
