GRC & Altius to offer free COVID testing starting Feb. 7th at the Fitness Center (FC), located in the southeast corner of campus
By Deb Casey, Vice President of Student Affairs, February 4, 2022
Hello GRC Gators,
At Green River College, the health and safety of all students, faculty and staff remains our top priority. With your help and participation, we have been implementing a safe and equitable plan for coming back to campus: GRC Phased Reopening Plan for Winter 2022.
This has and will continue to keep our Gator Community, and the greater community safe by adhering to our guidelines for greatly reducing our risk from Covid-19. We recognize the multiple safety mitigation strategies we have kept in place, Masking, Vaccinations, Social Distancing, Daily Cleaning, and state-of-the-art MERV 13 air filters and UV-C lighting at each campus location to create a safe environment for everyone.
As we read the news about the Omicron variant outbreaks, high percentage of disease that is spread in non-vaccinated people, recent recommendations to get a booster vaccine, and using better particle filtering masks like N95 or KN95, we know it’s time to further our efforts of protection against COVID.
We have been told from the start of this pandemic frequent testing serves as an early warning system to stop outbreaks from spreading and believe it is time to adopt a testing strategy. Green River College has worked to implement a free Testing Program as another layer of protection against COVID.
Partnering with Altius Clinical Testing Labs, Green River College will provide FREE, voluntary PCR testing that is Safe, EASY, Quick, Confidential, and On-site. This opportunity is open to students and employees of Green River College.
We’ve chosen this Monday, February 7, as our first day to offer this opportunity to you. Please be patient with our first day of testing as we open the doors free on-site testing will be twice a week on Mondays (9-5pm) and Thursdays (10-7pm) through the end of Spring quarter. The testing site will be located at the Fitness Center (FC), located in the southeast corner of campus. View main Auburn campus map. (NOTE: The testing site is not in the Recreation and Athletics Center (RAC) in the Student Union). Free at-home COVID-19 tests are also available at www.covidtests.gov and sayyeshometest.org.
To register, please visit the Altius portal. This link, along with other relevant resources, is located on GRC’s Coming to Campus Guide webpage.
Stay safe and Go Gators!
Deb Casey, Ph.D.
Vice President of Student Affairs
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAM
- Who should be tested?
- GRC is making COVID testing available to any member of the GRC community who has any of the following: cold-like symptoms; a known history of exposure to a family member or other individual with cold symptoms; any concern about a possible or known COVID exposure for themselves, or via another close contact such as a family member or friend. Testing will be offered free of charge to all GRC students and employees regardless of health insurance status.
- Who is providing testing?
- COVD testing is being provided by Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences, a local non-profit biomedical research organization. During the pandemic, Altius has partnered with the Washington State Department of Health, King County, and many local educational institutions to offer high-quality, PCR testing.
- How can I participate?
- GRC will conduct an initial run of the testing program this Monday, February 7th from 9:00am - 5:00pm at the Fitness Center on the Main Campus. If you plan to take advantage of testing, we ask that you pre-register using the Altius portal. This link, along with other relevant resources, is located on GRC’s Coming to Campus Guide webpage.
- Registration is secure and confidential, only takes about 2 minutes to complete, and will ensure instant access to testing.
- When will results be available?
- Test results are typically available within 12-24 hours via the secure online portal.
