The mobile testing units will is located at car park 12 on the Coleraine campus and will be located at car park three on the Magee campus and will be available to members of the local community as well as students and staff.
The University has been working with the Public Health Agency (PHA) over recent weeks to establish and implement the centre which will rotate between the Coleraine and Magee campuses depending on community demand for testing.
It is part of the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) public testing programme through which everyone in Northern Ireland with symptoms of COVID-19 is eligible for a free test and will help ensure a robust public health response as we move through the next stages of the pandemic
The availability of a mobile testing unit on campus provides students with rapid access to testing and where students are symptomatic and in need of a test, it will help the University to mitigate the risk of spread on campus.
The announcement follows a pilot testing programme that was carried out by Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast in collaboration with the Public Health Agency in August to examine the prevalence of current or past infection within the student community.
In the study of 500 participants, no students tested positive for COVID-19 and 6% of participants were found to have antibodies suggesting prior infection. This is in line with previous studies that have been conducted in England to assess the prevalence of antibodies amongst the general population.
Queen’s University Belfast will also host a walk-in centre, which is also open to the public, and will be located at the Physical Education Centre (PEC) site from Friday 25th September.
The mobile testing unit on the Coleraine campus opened on Tuesday 22nd September and will move to the Magee campus on Monday 28th September and will alternate each week between both campuses.
Access to testing at the centres will be by appointment only, booked via the existing DHSC channels, either online or by calling 119.
Only book a test if you have the symptoms of COVID-19, which are a new continuous cough, or a high temperature, or a change in your sense of taste or smell.