A student at UCLA has gone viral on social media, posting a how-to video detailing the campus' COVID-19 test vending machine. As campuses across the country continue their efforts to provide safety measures for students, a COVID test vending machine certainly ranks among the more innovative ideas.
According to a Newsweek report, the video has been viewed 1.8 million times on social media platform, TikTok. The video shows the step-by-step process of how to acquire a COVID test from the campus vending machine, including swiping the BruinCard student ID and self administering the test.
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According to the UCLA Health website, the university has installed thirteen of the test vending machines around campus for student use, most of which are accessible 24 hours a day.
The self-administered tests use technology pioneered at UCLA Health called "SwabSeq." UCLA Health maintains that SwabSeq is quicker and less expensive than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, while being just as accurate. Test results can be issued between 24-48 hours of testing.
Anyone with an active BruinCard is eligible to receive two tests per week free of charge. BruinCards will also automatically be filled with $2 each week to pay for the price of two $1 tests.
UCLA joins the University of California San Diego, the University of Ohio and Case Western University in Ohio as universities that have installed COVID test vending machines on campus.