By Neil Doyle
NORMAL – Illinois State University trustees approved a multi-million dollar contract to test students on-campus for coronavirus.
ISU’s governing board during a special session Wednesday agreed to a five-month contract with Reditus Laboratories for $3.3 million, or $110 per test.
The university said Reditus will perform surveillance testing or “general testing” for anyone not currently suffering COVID-like symptoms. ISU said this testing is necessary to “detect transmission hot spots or characterize disease trends.”
ISU President Larry Dietz said Reditus can perform up to 500 tests per day at multiple on-campus locations. Dietz said they anticipate conducting approximately 1,500 tests each week through December 31.
“The initial focus will be students living in on-campus housing,” Dietz said. “We hope we’ll be able to test a percentage of our resident population each week. We are not requiring the tests, but if they haven’t had baseline testing, which we strongly encouraged them to do before they left their homes, they can do a baseline test here and it’s a good way to do that.”
Dietz said some possible testing locations include mobile sites near The Alamo II bookstore and the old Normal Fire station near Cardinal Court and Weibring golf course.
Meanwhile, the university already holds a contract with Reditus for symptomatic testing services, in which ISU’s student health services collects test samples for symptomatic students. The surveillance testing and symptomatic testing service are separate agreements.
Neil Doyle can be reached at [email protected]
