The Department of Health and Environmental Control now has a pop-up COVID-19 testing center located in the north parking lot of the Winthrop Coliseum available to Winthrop students and Rock Hill residents.
“Winthrop has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to offer free COVID-19 testing at the North parking lot of the Winthrop Coliseum. DHEC’s free nasal swab testing will be available to anyone at Winthrop and in the surrounding communities at the Coliseum on Sept. 11, Sept. 18 and Sept. 23. Additional dates and times will be added, so please continue to check DHEC’s testing site for updates,” President George Hynd wrote in an email sent to students on Sept. 9.
“Over the summer we struggled with finding testing facilities for kids who wanted to be tested, whether it be pop up sites in our tri county area, near Chester and Lancaster, or doctors’ offices in Rock Hill. So, our director here got in contact with the head and expressed the need for another pop-up testing site and with us having a need here on campus, they decided on the coliseum to do that,” Katie Fowler, a registered nurse in Winthrop’s health services, said.
Students are encouraged to go to the coliseum and get tested if they are exhibiting symptoms and/or were in contact with someone who tested positive. Students are encouraged to seek testing at the Health and Counseling office at Winthrop in the Crawford building for a fee of $15 if they are in need of testing at a time when the site at the coliseum is not open.
“We actually have two ways that students can get tested on campus. We do test here in Health Services. You would basically sign into the patient portal and then after you talk with the nurse, we will schedule you for a test and you just drive up to the emergency parking spot in front of Crawford, and then somebody will come out and swab you. You don’t have to have a scheduled appointment. It is a certain timeframe that they go from, but you just stay in your car,” Fowler said.
Students are told to comply with social distancing guidelines, wear masks and practice sanitation measures, whether or not they are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.
“I think that students really need to hold each other accountable. It is pretty upsetting to get the phone call that a student is in quarantine because their friend that they’ve been walking around with is positive … I’ve seen a lot of kids with masks, but I’ve seen a lot of kids that don’t have masks on and I think that’s where students need to hold each other accountable. Because it not only affects them, it affects the entire campus population,” Fowler said.
Many Winthrop students are already making plans to get tested at the coliseum should they start to show symptoms or be in close proximity with an infected person.
“If I thought that I was coming down with symptoms or that I was in contact with somebody with COVID, I’d definitely go and get a test at the coliseum… I think [the swabbing process] will definitely prevent some people from getting it because it’s so uncomfortable, but honestly, I think that we’re all adults here and if we’ve been exposed to it or we get symptoms, we need to get tested. This isn’t a joke, like, plenty of people have died. If you have put yourself in that situation where you could get exposed to COVID then you need to get tested,” a junior fine arts major, Taylor Sallenger, said.
Students commend Winthrop for the measures the university is taking to encourage testing and prevent an outbreak, but still feel there is more that could be done.
“I think Winthrop has been pretty diligent about making sure people have been wearing masks in buildings and in DIGS, I like that they have the stickers on the floor to indicate where to stand for the food lines like Chick-Fil-A… They told us to bring a digital thermometer for living on campus before the semester began, but they did not provide one for students. I don’t know how expensive they are, but considering how much I pay for tuition, I think Winthrop could have provided a digital thermometer in our welcome bags if they felt so strongly that is was a necessity for living on campus,” Lyn Horton, a junior English major, said.
It is imperative that the Winthrop community is united in preventing the spread of COVID-19 by enforcing social distancing, mask-wearing and consistent sanitization, but if students start exhibiting symptoms, they should go to the coliseum or the health center and get tested.
“Students who are experiencing symptoms or have tested positive should immediately communicate this information to Health Services by emailing covidreporting@winthrop.edu,” President Hynd’s email said.
Graphic by Lizzy Talbert
