All Bristol students offered asymptomatic coronavirus testing from 30 November

By Filiz Emily Gurer, News Editor

Testing sites will operate from Monday 30 November to Wednesday 9 December with testing available at two different locations across campus.

Bristol has this afternoon sent a university-wide email revealing that mass testing of students will take place to allow students to return home safely for Christmas.

Students at Bristol will be offered free Lateral Flow Tests (LFTs) as part of the University’s plans for asymptomatic mass testing.

Students can now book an appointment for their tests from the University’s webpage.

The Lateral Flow tests takes five minutes to be carried out, after which students will either be emailed or texted their results by NHS Test and Trace.

The University have said ‘results should reach [students] within 2 to 3 hours of taking the test’.  

These will be operating from two test centres across campus: at Wills Conference Centre in The North Village and at the Anson Rooms in Bristol Students’ Union.

The test centre at the Anson Rooms will be open for testing from 10am - 5.20pm between 30 November and 9 December, with the North Village test centre open from 8.20am - 9.20pm.

The testing at these centres will be for asymptomatic testing only, meaning that students with symptoms will still be required to book a test at a government testing centre.

The University has advised that students ‘should have two tests; ideally leaving three days between the first and second [and] will be sent [their] test result by text or email’.

For students at Bristol planning to travel internationally, however, the University have advised that taking a Lateral Flow test will not be adequate for going abroad and that students should therefore secure a PCR test.

Lateral Flow Tests are rapid turnaround tests that detect the coronavirus antigen that is produced when a person is infectious with coronavirus.

LFTs allow for the processing of Covid-19 samples on site, without the need for laboratory equipment, with most generating results in under half an hour.

The tests have been advised by the UK government to have high accuracy, resulting in only a small proportion of people who do not have coronavirus receiving a false positive result.

Students who do receive a positive test result back will be required to take a confirmatory swab test (PCR test) to make sure their test result is correct.

By getting tested prior to travelling home during the student travel window, students will be able to prevent spreading the virus to their families and friends.

Featured Image: Epigram / Siavash Minoukadeh

Have you booked an appointment for your tests yet?