Talee Messenger
Equinox Staff
As of March 10, 2021, Keene State College reported 20 positive COVID-19 cases from the March 1 testing week period.
In total, Keene State has 28 current active cases. Of those, 21 are off-campus students. Keene State remains in the “green/yellow” operational status zone.
There are currently 117 students in quarantine or isolation. At Keene State, two isolation beds are being used, and seven quarantine beds in use.
Keene State is currently using Broad Institute to conduct testing, and college officials are pleased with the switch.
“The primary reason for Keene State’s shift from Quest to Broad was the need for faster turnaround times with our test results,” Co-Testing Coordinator Michelle Wood, alongside Cristy Taylor, commented on the switch. “As a result of the move to Broad, people were pleasantly shocked at the faster turnaround times and another bonus has been the ease in consistently obtaining test results via text notification or email. The move to Broad was a true game changer and working with Broad has been an excellent choice for [Keene State College].”
Broad Institute works directly with colleges and non-profit organizations. They take on a limited number of clients for their testing program in order to have a faster turn-around time. They currently work with 125 different colleges/universities within their COVID-19 testing program, and you must apply to be accepted into their program. Thus far, Broad has conducted over 10 million PCR tests since March 2020.
With this system, “Test Not Processed” has become a possible outcome when receiving your results.
According to Wood, approximately 2% of tests conducted result in a “Test Not Processed”, or TNP.
“We’ve worked hard as a community to reduce our TNP number and we consistently stay around 2%, which is outstanding. The best way to prevent receiving a Test Not Processed is to stop by the awesome ‘Blow and Go’ station and give a hardy blow,” Wood stated.
Those who receive a TNP are still allowed to attend in-person classes, while following the protocols in place, and are required to retest at the next available testing event.
To mitigate your chances of receiving a TNP, the school has also moved towards the double-nasal-swab during testing.
“The first swab you do at testing is to capture the extra fluid in your nasal passages and the second swab is the actual PCR test,” Wood explained.
In an email to the student body earlier this week, Gail Zimmerman reminded those that go on campus that a surgical mask (N95, KF94, KN95, three-layer fitted tightly woven mask or a fitted mask with a HEPA filter) is required while on campus. Zimmerman also urged caution in the upcoming week, and to plan COVID-19-safe St. Patrick’s day celebrations.
Talee Messenger can be contacted at:
tmessenger@kscequinox.com
