Tan Eng Chyestated to
The New York Times.
Aggressive Testing to Save the Day
Testing for the coronavirus is critical for tracking its spread and determining when isolation and containment measures should be put into place.
However, it hasn’t been easy for students and faculty to get tested on certain US university campuses. For example, saliva-testing at the University of South Carolina is entirely voluntary and had to be stopped entirely in September after a staff member who administered the tests became ill. The university had already reported over 1,000 cases by then.
In comparison to such lackadaisical measures in the US, universities in Singapore adopted aggressive testing measures to nip the virus in the bud. NUS, which had resorted to online lectures for a brief period, was quick to resume campus operations. By fall, the university was implementing strong social distancing measures by assigning students to different zones on campus while imposing tough penalties for