Penn administers COVID-19 tests at the Hall of Flags in Houston Hall.
Credit: Jonah CharltonPenn will now provide students with their COVID-19 testing results through a secure web portal accessible by PennKey in an effort to report results faster.
The previous messaging system for COVID-19 test results — which had been in place since Penn began gateway testing in August — sent students secure emails about their results from Student Health Service. The new system, which Penn rolled out on Tuesday, asks students to log into a portal and independently retrieve their results. This eliminates the time it takes for SHS to email students their results individually, Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Dubé wrote that students who have been tested at Houston Hall within the past two days have been notified of the changes, and that Student Health will be notifying all students participating in weekly testing in the coming days.
The web portal that will now be used for all testing results is protected through a dual authentication process, Dubé continued. Students can expect to receive results 24 to 48 hours after their test.
"This system was put in place as a benefit and a service to students, allowing them to access their results [themselves] rather than waiting to be notified," Dubé wrote.
On Sept. 12, Penn announced it would offer all students living in West Philadelphia weekly COVID-19 surveillance testing for the remainder of the fall semester in an effort to continue to identify and isolate cases near the University. The decision followed hundreds of students petitioning Penn to continue to provide widespread testing for all students for the entirety of the fall semester.
Penn will continue to post weekly case counts on Tuesdays throughout the remainder of the semester on its COVID-19 dashboard. In the most recent update, containing results from Sept. 21 to Sept. 26, Penn reported nine positive results out of 2,531 total tests, an overall positivity rate of .36%. Since Aug. 1, Penn has reported a total of 161 positive cases and a total positivity rate of 1.08%.
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