SIUC's Chancellor says as more testing becomes available, the school may consider mandatory COVID-19 testing for students, faculty and staff.
"It's definitely on the table. Depending on how we do in the next couple of of months, next couple of weeks. We've talked a little bit about what spring will look like, and whether or not spring will be a mandatory test environment," Austin Lane said Monday.
Chancellor Lane made his comments during a virtual update to the SIU campus, the same day a partnership with SIH and the Jackson County Public Health Department brought testing sites to SIUC.
Jackson County Public Health Department Administrator Bart Hagston says there may be a bump in the number of positive cases as a result of the new testing sites - but he says that's the point of testing.
"I would expect that our numbers would go up for the short term, but that through the testing we'll be able to do our job with contact tracing, get people isolated and quarantined, and help limit the spread of COVID."
University leaders also announced on Monday that the Spring 2021 semester will start a week later than usual - beginning January 19.
You can watch the campus update here:
