On September 21st, Sonoma State opened up their testing facilities to family and household members of students and staff. This move benefits a large number of people, not only on Sonoma State’s campus, but in the local community as well.

The move to extend the testing center’s resources to family and house members came as a response to the large number of students complaining about how hard it is for their housemates to get tested. When students and staff are dealing with COVID-19 exposures within their house, their housemates sometimes end up waiting four or five days to get their results. These people being eligible to be tested on campus eliminates this problem.

“Currently, our testing center is getting results out within 48 hours,” said Missy Brunetta, director of emergency service and associate risk manager at Sonoma State, “They are often much faster than that too.”

With wait times being decreased by about 50 percent, less students will need to miss class due to exposure within their households. In addition, less staff members will need to miss teaching their class, or doing on campus work. 

Brunetta spoke to the testing company, Avellino, and they assured her that it would be no problem to take on more people for testing. 

In order to get tested, students, staff and their household members will need to register with the testing company. They can do so at https://avellinocov2.com/patient/register.

When registering, everyone needs an ID and their insurance information, for billing purposes. After registering, people can make their appointment. Everyone also needs to bring an ID and insurance information to their appointment.

Please note that the testing center on campus is not meant to test people who are symptomatic or feeling sick. It is meant to test people who may have been exposed, or those who need frequent testing for sports, work, etc. People who are feeling ill should seek help from their medical provider. Students who are feeling symptomatic should go to the health center on campus and not the testing center.

Sonoma State opening their testing center to family and household members of their students takes stress away from community testing sites, which are overfilled right now. Faster results for COVID tests is key to controlling the spread of the virus throughout the community.

“I know a few students here who live with their families,” said Jacob Cohen, a third year business major. “I think this is a good way to keep them safer.”

As long as testing times stay as prompt and rapid as they have been, this plan seems to be very beneficial for the school. Less students and staff will need to miss their in-person classes and activities, if their housemates can get tested at Sonoma. This also takes a chunk of the population out of the community testing centers, which should help them work more efficiently. Anyone within the same household as any member of Sonoma State is now eligible to receive testing on campus.