Get Tested

Experiencing COVID-19 Symptoms?

Do ALL of the following:

1. Call the COVID-19 Hotline at 877-OU-COV19 (877-682-6819) and an OhioHealth clinical case manager will help you schedule a test.
2. Notify Ohio University at www.ohio.edu/reportexposure
3. Isolate to minimize exposure to others.

Think You've Been Exposed?

Email COVIDoperations@ohio.edu or call 740-566-8445 and a COVID Campus Liaison will assess the situation and connect you with testing if needed.

Feeling Fine but Want a COVID Test?

Any OHIO employee or student who is not experiencing symptoms but would like an asymptomatic test can use this online scheduler to schedule a test on the Athens campus at the Vault Health testing location at the Ohio University Golf and Tennis center. Submit this form if you're on a regional campus and would like to request a Vault at-home test.

READ MORE ABOUT OHIO’S COVID-19 TESTING PROGRAM

As part of Ohio University’s commitment to protect the health and safety of its students, employees and community, the University has implemented a broad and sophisticated COVID-19 testing program.

Strategies include symptomatic testing to diagnose and isolate positive individuals, as well as asymptomatic testing to identify asymptomatic carriers of the virus, monitor its incidence, and anticipate potential outbreaks. OHIO also is implementing a wastewater surveillance testing effort.

Asymptomatic testing of University community members is included as a Presidential Health Directive as a necessary precaution to mitigate community health risks.

Symptomatic testing

Through a partnership with OhioHealth, those who are experiencing symptoms can call the Ohio University COVID-19 Hotline to arrange a test. OhioHealth clinical case managers will connect callers with testing resources and follow up on symptoms. The hotline number is 877-OU-COV19 (877-682-6819).

Asymptomatic testing

Testing asymptomatic individuals helps University leaders understand whether virus incidence is decreasing or increasing among the campus community, providing information about infection rates and trends. It also helps the University identify and isolate positive individuals, with the goal of reducing spread and identifying potential outbreaks.

Through partnerships with Vault Health and CVS, our asymptomatic testing program includes the following:

• At-home testing: All students with an on-campus presence in January 2021 were required to take an at-home COVID-19 test through Vault Health before returning to campus.
• Asymptomatic testing via saliva-based PCR tests administered by Vault Health at the University Golf and Tennis Center testing location next to the Ping Center:
  • All students living on campus will test weekly at a regularly scheduled time.
  • All students living off campus who will have any presence on campus will test every other week at a regularly scheduled time.
  • Regional campus students and employees who participate in on-campus activities will test every other week using Vault’s at-home testing.
  • OHIO employees will be invited at random via email to participate in asymptomatic testing at the Tennis Center to help monitor incidence of the virus. OHIO employees who regularly come to campus are encouraged to test every other week.
  • Visit this page to learn more about the Vault testing program.
• Wide net testing: This testing strategy allows us to quickly test those in near contact with people with positive test results, allowing us to identify and intervene in outbreaks early. Wide net testing will take place at the Grosvenor West 111 CVS testing location and will utilize the Abbott ID NOW, rapid molecular, self-administered nasal swab tests. Visit this page to learn more about the CVS testing program.

Students who do not arrive for regularly scheduled asymptomatic testing will lose access to all University buildings and will be unable to attend in person classes, labs, studios or any other activities. On-campus residential students that do not get tested will be subject to the terms of their Housing Contract.

Wastewater surveillance 

Our wastewater surveillance testing effort is part of a grant project administered by the Ohio Water Resources Center and awarded on campus to Guy Riefler, civil engineering chair and professor, and Karen Coschigano, biomedical sciences associate professor. Because wastewater surveillance testing can detect remnants of the COVID-19 virus before individuals have symptoms, this testing will be part of an early warning system to detect outbreaks in residence halls.

Contact Tracing

Once a positive case is identified, a COVID Campus Liaison will contact the patient and begin contact tracing on behalf of Athens City-County Health Department. Anyone who was in close contact with the individual within the window of disease onset will be contacted and must isolate from other individuals for 14 days. 

Close contact is considered within six feet for a cumulative total of 15 minutes in a 24-hour period. Students who were in class or in other spaces with a positive student during which all individuals were maintaining a six-foot physical distance will likely not be considered close contacts or have a need for monitoring or isolation.