Three COVID-19 testing sites at the University of Wisconsin will close starting April 2 due to the increasing number of UW students, staff and faculty being immunized.
In an email statement to The Herald, UW spokesperson Meredith McGlone said currently there are 12,177 UW–Madison students and staff who are partially or fully vaccinated. Of those, 54% are staff and 46% are students.
“Because a growing number of employees and students are vaccinated and no longer need to test regularly, campus is able to reduce the number of testing sites while still providing sufficient access to testing,” McGlone said.
At the end of the day on April 1, the testing sites at Health Sciences Learning Center, Carson Gulley Center and Helen C. White will shut down. According to McGlone, the Nielsen Tennis Stadium, Dejope Residence Hall and Pyle Center are alternatives for those sites.
All other sites will remain open with the same operating hours, McGlone wrote.
“Testing sites will remain open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend, April 2-4,” McGlone said. “Employees and students should continue to test on their regular schedule.”
Additionally, all UW employees — including student employees — can schedule vaccine appointments at University Health Services. According to a recent UW press release, UHS will receive 800 first doses of Moderna this week.
Starting April 1, UHS will offer special clinic hours to vaccinate second and third shift employees in certain UW departments, namely, Facilities Planning and Management, Athletics, Wisconsin Unions, Conference Centers and Mail Services, Housing, Mouse Breeding Core and Research Services and University Health Services. UW will immunize employees only from the above departments at the clinics.
The clinics will operate April 1 between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m and on April 2 between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Cultural Linguistic Services will provide language support on site in several languages including Spanish, Hmong, Tibetan, Nepali and Chinese, according to the press release.
