No University testing availability for 10 days following Thanksgiving

Nov. 27, 2020, 6:45 p.m.

Stanford ran out of COVID-19 testing slots on Friday for the days following Thanksgiving. The Verily testing dashboard, where students on campus can schedule a test, showed no open time slots between Nov. 27 and Dec. 6 — a period of 10 days — on Friday night.

The University added “additional Verily appointments” for students living on campus during the remainder of winter break according to Student Affairs spokesperson Pat Lopes Harris, who did not specify how many slots had been added. Stanford previously ran out of testing slots before Thanksgiving, later adding 300 across Tuesday and Wednesday.

Harris said the shortage comes amid “a sharp rise in the demand for testing across the country” in advance of the holiday season as well as a rising number of cases in both the nation and Santa Clara County.

Stanford does not offer tests on Saturdays, Sundays or Thursdays during most of winter break, which accounts for some of the lack of testing availability.

Though students are not required to be tested weekly over break as they were during the quarter, the University strongly recommends weekly COVID-19 testing for all students who are living on campus or are coming to campus regularly.

Asked if there were other ways students could fulfill the weekly recommendation, Stanford declined to comment. The University also declined to comment on how many slots have been booked and how many students are on campus.

Verily — the company that administers most University COVID-19 tests — did not immediately respond to The Daily’s request for comment on the lack of testing availability.

Rachel Bowanko J.D. ’22 previously told The Daily that “you’ve always been able to get a test within the next day or two” and added she thinks most students aren’t planning their tests a week or more in advance. “There’s probably a lot of people who won’t get a test who otherwise would have because of this,” she said at the time.

Malaysia Atwater contributed reporting.

Contact Sam Catania at samcat ‘at’ stanford.edu.

Sam Catania ’24 is the Volume 262 Editor in Chief of The Daily. Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer, the producer of the weekly video roundup, a news beat reporter covering COVID-19 on Stanford's campus and the assessment team leader of The Daily's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team. Sam hails from Philadelphia and is studying Symbolic Systems. You can follow him on Twitter @sbcatania. Contact him at scatania 'at' stanforddaily.com

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