(Cover photo source: Jason Zheng)

NYU Shanghai arranged a second day of Covid testing on Saturday, March 12. Students, faculty, and staff who did not get their precautionary Covid test on Thursday, March 10 had another chance to get a school arranged test.

“The additional day of free on-campus Covid-19 testing was a great help,” said Jason Fu, a sophomore. “It also showed the school’s commitment to preventing Covid-19 on our campus.”

Another sophomore, Shan Sundaram, also shared the same sentiment about the school providing students with an additional opportunity to get tested. “[It’s] just another example of how outstanding our school is at helping the students,” Shan said.

Source: Jason Zheng

There were major differences between the two respective days of testing. The second day had different procedures. Before getting tested, people registered on the WeChat mini-program 健康云. Some foreign students and professors could not register, so Chinese members manually registered international students and professors. Additionally, only about 40 community members showed up for the extra testing compared to the 1801 on March 10.

The testing was scheduled for 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., but nurses showed up 30 minutes late resulting in long lines and people being more frustrated and agitated.

Once the nurses arrived at 1:30 p.m., they only admitted two people at a time to get a nose and throat swab. This also increased frustration among the community members.

Because of the delay, the testing period was extended from 2:00 p.m. to approximately 2:30 p.m.