UBC community supports COVID-19 research with rapid antigen testing clinic

This is part one in a series recognizing faculty and staff who are supporting UBC’s transition back to campus. In this update, we share the efforts of our colleagues behind UBC Vancouver’s COVID-19 rapid testing clinic.

Twice a week over this past spring, Joe Stevens, Residence Life Manager in Orchard Commons residence, headed to a room on the third floor of the building. There, he self-administered a COVID-19 test that provided him results within 15 minutes, while also contributing to important scientific research.

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“I live in residence during the week and see my partner on weekends,” he explains. “So, I would do rapid tests on Friday before going to see my partner, and then on Tuesdays it would be a way of following up on the weekend.”

Joe was one of over a thousand participants in a pilot project that offered rapid antigen testing to asymptomatic students and staff living and working in student residences, Greek houses, and part of UBC varsity teams. He also played a key role as the self-isolation coordinator of the project, helping any students who did test positive settle into safe and comfortable self-isolation suites at Walter Gage.

The pilot project—the first of its kind at a Canadian university—ran from February to April, and helped identify positive cases of the virus in asymptomatic individuals who were quickly moved into isolation. Now, it has expanded into a clinical trial of the SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test developed by Roche, and is open to anyone living or working at UBC until August 20.

Led by the UBC School of Nursing, in collaboration with Safety and Risk Services, Student Housing and Community Services, Vancouver Coastal Health, Health Canada and Providence Health, the trial offers the opportunity for UBC students, faculty and staff to contribute to making more rapid COVID-19 tests available across Canada. Rapid testing can play an important role in identifying positive cases and curbing transmission with early intervention.

A positive outcome

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Anyone who receives a positive result at the UBC rapid test site is then given a deeper nasal swab that is fast-tracked for confirmation at St. Paul’s Hospital. For students in residence who did test positive over the school year, there was a team of staff ready to jump into action—including Joe.

“I'm the first person that they talked to after they spoke to the nurse who said, ‘You've screened positive,’” says Joe. “I was that person to reassure them and walk them through what’s going to happen next.”

Like all Residence Life managers, Joe was on call 24-7, on-hand to help day and night if anyone needed anything. “For every student who went into self-isolation, we would check in on them at whatever level of frequency they wanted,” he says. “Some students would want you to phone them every day, and they really appreciated that.” 

If a student in isolation needed something from their room, or help with finding academic supports, Joe would be there to assist: “That would become my role—to go pick up stuff for them, or help coordinate their parents to come. Other parts of my role might be reaching out to resources at the university to make sure that professors were aware that the student might need accommodations during that time.”