NDSU Testing Residence Hall Waste-Water for COVID-19

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) - The fight against COVID-19 will now head into the sewers for North Dakota State University.

Recently the school began testing waste water from the residence halls in an attempt to detect traces of COVID. If there are traces of COVID-19 found in the waste-water, then the entire dorm will need to get tested.

An email, sent to Valley News Live this afternoon, was sent out by NDSU Residence Life alerting one of the residence halls on campus that their waste water had tested positive for COVID-19, and that everyone living there was to get tested at the Shelley Ellig Indoor Track Facility the next day.

Their reasoning in the email for the testing was to find COVID in students who may be asymptomatic to help stop the spread.

When we were on campus this afternoon, most students we talked to felt like this method of testing was just like any other aspect of this unusual school year, but others feel that this may be an unnecessary step.

“I feel like it’s a step they don’t need to take really." said Current NDSU Student Donovan Guest, "We already have a lot of tests going on anyway.”

Currently NDSU has 99 confirmed cases on campus, with 97 students and two employees testing positive for the illness. 162 students are in quarantine in student housing. This waste-water testing is their latest method to help identify cases of COVID-19, and slow the spread on campus.