The Student Health Center partnered with the Arkansas Department of Health on Thursday, Sept. 10 to provide students, faculty and staff with free COVID-19 tests.

According to an email sent out by President Davis’ office, 377 tests were collected with nine positives.

“We were expecting between 300 and 500, so 377 was a pretty fair turnout,” Medical Director and Physician Dr. Randy Pastor said.

Of the tests that were taken, all came back with a result. However, this is not always the case with tests that are administered. 

“Sometimes you’ll have more done and some get lost and tubes get broken, so not every test that’s collected will always have a result associated with it, but in our case they were,” Pastor said. 

As of Sept. 16., the Arkansas Department of Health has given 109,664 tests in the month of September to the entire state of Arkansas according to the department’s website.

The ADH “brought 1,200 tests with them, which is their standard amount for a large university,” Pastor said.

The entirety of Carmichael Hall is used for quarantine and isolation services. Currently, there are five of 134 on campus quarantine rooms in use and 24 of 85 on campus isolation beds in use. 

Students who have tested positive for the virus will be put in quarantine in Carmichael and have to sign a COVID-19 quarantine contract that details specific measures that each student must take to keep everyone as safe as possible.

There are strict protocols outlined for the cleaning of Carmichael and a scheduled meal delivery plan that is detailed on uca.edu. 

Senior Shea Terrazas was tested because “it was free… and I wanted to test just to make sure I wasn’t asymptomatic,” she said. 

Terrazas said the test took no longer than 10 minutes, and she performed the test herself.

“It didn’t hurt, but it was very uncomfortable. It kind of tickled at the top of my nose,”

Terrazas said.

 She received her negative result the following Saturday.

Freshman Abby Gray was also tested. “My boyfriend had to get tested and days after I started feeling pretty bad, so I went ahead and got tested,” Gray said. 

Gray’s test took about five minutes and was “a 1 out of 10 with discomfort considering the risk,” she said. 

Her negative result came back within three days.

According to uca.edu, within the last week, UCA has seen a spike in the number of positive cases.

There were 665 tests collected with 55 positive results the week of Sept. 9-15. This was a jump from the week of Sept. 2-8 which had 555 tests with only 19 positive results. 

The positivity rate over these two weeks spiked nearly 4%.

There are 2,103 total positive cases in Faulkner County according to the Arkansas Department of Health website; roughly 2.97% of the total number of cases in Arkansas. Faulkner County ranks number four in the total number of new cases in Arkansas as of Sept. 16. 

As of Sept. 16, there are 70,731 confirmed cases in the state of Arkansas. 109,664 tests have been administered so far in September.