photo by: Journal-World Photo

The self-collection saliva kit that is being used to test student, faculty and staff for COVID-19 at the University of Kansas.

Less than a week from the beginning of physical classes on the University of Kansas campus amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the university’s mandatory testing program to initially screen the KU community for the respiratory virus is ongoing.

After several inquiries by the Journal-World, KU said late Tuesday that it would release an update on data from the current round of testing — which has been ongoing since Aug. 7 — in the coming days.

But it’s still largely a mystery what will happen after the screening round of testing is completed.

KU announced in early August that it would mandate initial testing for everyone who would be on the university campus on or before Sept. 7, but has so far released almost no information about what will happen afterward, other than to say the initial results would guide what testing was completed in the future.

Clinical Reference Laboratory partnership

Just over one month ago, KU Chancellor Douglas Girod announced in a weekly video update message that the university would partner with Lenexa-based Clinical Reference Laboratory to conduct COVID-19 testing for students, faculty and staff members.

In that message, he didn’t elaborate on what KU’s testing program might ultimately cost the university — a question which still doesn’t have an entirely clear answer.

In KU’s Aug. 5 announcement mandating testing, officials also announced that the university had received $2.8 million in CARES Act funding from Gov. Laura Kelly’s SPARK task force to administer the tests. They did not say — and still have not said — how many tests that would pay for, or what the university’s plans are for testing during the semester.

Hoping to find those answers in any agreements between KU and the laboratory, the Journal-World recently filed a request under the Kansas Open Records Act for any such agreements or contracts.

On Aug. 12, KU responded to the newspaper’s request and said no agreements or contracts existed. University spokesperson Erinn Barcomb-Peterson confirmed that KU did not have an agreement with the laboratory in an email to the Journal-World on Friday, and confirmed again Tuesday that there was still no contract between the two parties.

“The University of Kansas Health System is helping to coordinate this effort with CRL in (a) manner consistent with public health best practices,” she said. “Our Pandemic Medical Advisory Team has also worked to ensure that this community testing is conducted in an effective and safe manner.”

Barcomb-Peterson suggested that the Journal-World check back with KU in the future about a contractual agreement.

Kristi Zears, communications director for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, did not specifically address an inquiry from the Journal-World on whether it was normal practice for a testing program of KU’s magnitude to not have a contractual agreement in place.

Zears did say that even without a contract, there are federal standards — such as the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certificate and guideline program — that all labs providing COVID-19 testing must adhere to. Those standards, she said, regulate the quality of testing and patient protections.

“KDHE does not provide any further guidance on standards of testing,” she said in an email. “Contracts are a business decision and do not involve KDHE.”

Robert Thompson, the CEO of Clinical Reference Laboratory, appeared Tuesday on the daily COVID-19 briefings hosted by the University of Kansas Health System. He said that the lab currently has the capability to test around 20,000 samples each day and is hoping to increase that capacity to 50,000 samples daily by the end of September.

Thompson also indicated that the lab’s testing showed that the saliva-based tests were just as accurate in detecting the virus as the nose swabs that initially launched testing in the United States when the pandemic began. He also said that the lab is currently averaging 13 hours of turnaround time to get test results to patients.

The Journal-World hasn’t been able to independently confirm those assertions, and the lab did not respond to an inquiry last week about its partnership with KU.

On the testing materials, as well as in the lab’s Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it states clearly that the test is meant for “informational purposes only” and is not meant to serve as an official medical diagnosis, according to photos of the test kits obtained by the Journal-World.

Data availability

When KU announced its mandatory testing program on Aug. 5, a university spokesperson told the Journal-World that KU would work with local officials to make the data and statistics from the initial round of testing publicly available in a way that also maintained patient privacy.

Barcomb-Peterson on Tuesday confirmed for the first time that KU would release a status update soon on the rate of positive tests as well as the number of positive cases identified.

Positive cases, she said, will be reported to local health authorities, and KU will work with students and employees directly through Watkins Health Services, the on-campus health care provider.

After a positive case is reported, Barcomb-Peterson said that students, faculty and staff will “be expected to fully comply with instructions from health authorities before their return to campus.” She did not elaborate on whether there were any enforcement mechanisms currently in place to ensure people weren’t flouting quarantine or isolation guidelines.

KU’s data update does not necessarily mean that the data will be differentiated from how Douglas County releases local numbers each weekday.

George Diepenbrock, communications officer for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, said Tuesday that positive COVID-19 cases identified in KU’s testing program could be expected to show up in the county’s numbers.

Those would include positive cases from KU community members who don’t live in Douglas County outside of the academic year, Diepenbrock said, since KU is asking people to register to take the test with a local address.

But when pressed to clarify whether data from KU would be released independently of Douglas County statistics, Diepenbrock only repeated that positive cases from KU’s testing program would likely show up in Douglas County’s daily numbers.

It remains unclear how exactly KU will publicize its COVID-19 data, as well as whether or how either KU or Douglas County will make public any clusters or outbreaks that arise during the semester.

How the data will be used

KU has said it would use data from the first round of testing to better understand the frequency and type of virus testing that will be needed in the future — also taking into account what resources KU has available on a cash-strapped budget.

Absent a contract with the CRL laboratory, however, it remains unclear exactly how much testing KU’s resources can pay for. Although KU received $2.8 million in CARES Act funding to pay for testing, it’s not clear how much more testing that would cover beyond the initial period — or whether KU would have CARES money left for any subsequent testing at all.

Chris Wilson, the vice president of system integration and innovation at the University of Kansas Health System, also appeared on the daily Health System media briefing and indicated that KU does plan on doing more frequent testing of large groups — such as sorority and fraternity houses — in addition to some randomized population testing.

Currently, Wilson said, KU is not planning on testing every community member on a regular basis.

KU community members have raised concerns over knowing whether someone has completed the initial mandatory COVID-19 test as well as complied with any subsequent health instructions. Barcomb-Peterson didn’t directly answer a question about what happens if someone chooses not to take a COVID-19 test, but she did say that more information on safety mechanisms would be communicated soon.

“We plan to distribute additional information to our university community soon on how they can confirm they have participated in this process,” she said.

KU’s fall semester is scheduled to begin Aug. 24.