COVID-19: Community Updates and Resources
Living through a worldwide pandemic hasn’t been easy.
I haven’t seen a co-worker outside of a Brady Bunch-style Zoom tile in nearly a year. I haven’t seen a movie in a theater or hugged my extended family or friends in just as long.
I know many of you are going through this too. It’s been tough.
But we’re getting there.
There is a sign of progress out there…an actual sign, in fact.
It is planted just outside of the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences gym and it guides you toward a site for COVID-19 testing - testing that all of us need to return to Albany Law School for this spring semester.
If you haven’t heard yet, in order to return for in-person learning or work, all members of the Albany Law School community need proof of a negative COVID-19 test filed with the Human Resources Department. Luckily, and thankfully, our friends at the ACPHS have made it extremely easy to get tested and I want to share my experience going through the process.
The ACPHS rapid COVID-19 tests are available for eligible members of our community. To make an appointment, I signed up online with my albanylaw.edu email and the system sent me a confirmation email. From there, I confirmed my appointment (I could have cancelled or rescheduled too) and I added it to my calendar.
The appointments were limited, but there were a number of openings for me to pick from including some soon as the next day.
I arrived on campus and entered the testing site—the ACPHS gym, across from the Gozzo student center entrance.
As I entered and shook the snow out of my hair and mask, I was a little nervous. Well, I was nervous until I was greeted by the masked face of the attendant behind a long table with a plastic divider. Even though I couldn’t see their face, their voice was friendly and attentive. I then filled out a form with my name, date of birth, and where I work.
After that, they pointed me to one of the many socially-distanced chairs placed in the gym to wait for another attendant to bring over the testing materials.
I only waited for a few minutes, before another attendant confirmed my name and explained to me how the testing process worked.
During the test I swabbed both of my nostrils. It’s still unpleasant, but since it is self-administered it’s a little easier than a stranger jamming that swab up your nose. I handed it back and tried not to sneeze as they took my sample behind another divider for testing.
Then I waited.
I got some great social media scrolling done, since I follow Albany Law School on all of our social media platforms, of course.
After about 25 minutes, a different attendant came over with the original form I filled out. After I confirmed my identity again, they showed me my negative results and let me know that they would upload it to the SharemyHealth health screener that we all fill out every morning (If I was tested somewhere else I would have had to upload my results myself or email HR). Later, I also got a text confirmation with my results through the Share My Health Portal.
I exited out a different door in order to keep cross contamination to a minimum.
Overall, the process was quick, easy, and a huge relief. It gave me great peace of mind to leave with results the same day of my test.
I have to give a huge credit to all of the ACPHS folks involved in this process. They explained everything so well and made the process simple.
During these difficult times, I really appreciated that there is a sign that things are getting better.
