Leuven University (KUL) open coronavirus test centre for students
Leuven University (KUL) has opened its own coronavirus testing centre near to the Flemish Brabant city’s Oude Markt. Students that come to Leuven from a red zone on the coronavirus risk map or have had contact with a person that has tested positive for coronavirus can get themselves tested. The university hopes that the new centre will serve to take some of the pressure off GPs and will mean that its students will be able to get test their results quicker.
Professor Jef Arnaut of the university’s Department of Biomedical Sciences told VRT News that "It is our ambition to be able to give the students their results within 24 hours. This is important so that we can start contact tracing. The tests are analysed at the Leuven University Hospital’s lab. The hospital is part of our university, so this is easy because we have quick access to the experts”.
The university hopes that the test centre will serve to take some of the pressure off Leuven’s GPs and will allow them to concentrate on people that are ill.
It is not the intention that people that are ill come to the testing centre. “It is very important that students aren’t ill. If they are they should go first to the Student Health Centre or their GP. The test centre really is only for those with mild symptoms, for people that have arrived from a Red Zone area or have had contact with someone that has tested positive for corona”.
The test centre is in the Zeelstraat, in the centre of Leuven, near to the Oude Markt. It has capacity to test 500 students per day.