Harvard ramps up sample COVID testing
Gakii Masunga, who is studying for her master’s in bioethics at Harvard Medical School, was among the first students to take the University’s new COVID-19 test. She picked up the self-administered kit last Thursday at a pilot site outside Quincy House. There, she activated the test tube’s barcode on the web-based platform called Color and answered a couple of health questions. After swabbing each nostril — 1 inch in, three rotations around — she scanned the barcode onto the platform’s app, and then walked to Lowell House to drop the specimen into a bin at the designated test collection point. “I wasn’t sure what it would be like, but it takes a few minutes at best,” said Masunga, who will serve as community health lead in Lowell. “I thought it might be overwhelming and time-consuming, but the test is actually very smooth.” Gakii Masunga used the app to activate the test tube's barcode....