USC Aiken COVID testing site struggling with long waits, appointments necessary for quick testing

USC Aiken has benefited from having a COVID-19 testing site located on campus at the convocation center. The testing site has provided testing for students as well as the surrounding community.

Director of Assessment and Special Projects, Deri Willis, said that the testing site has been busy ever since it first opened.

“We started this last November. At that time when we first opened it, we were testing five, six hundred people a day,” he said, “and we were doing saliva tests, which are a lot quicker than the nasal swab we do now.”

Although the nasal swab test administered now takes more time, several things can be done to quicken the testing process. One of these is making an appointment.

“Not scheduling an appointment slows the line down,” said Wills.

Another way to speed up the line is to arrive on time.

“People start lining up at nine even though they don’t have an appointment until ten,” he said. “It backs everything up.”

Appointments can be made here.