Testing at APSU/photo provided
Austin Peay State University is prepared to administer as many as 25,000 vaccines in the coming months to students, employees and their families.
College officials said in a Friday morning email that Austin Peay also plans to open a new clinical laboratory January 4 on campus that will help university healthcare workers deliver quicker, more accurate COVID-19 testing and results.
Austin Peay will be one of the vaccination pods in Montgomery County, said Dr. Heather Phillips, director of the university’s new clinical laboratory.
The lab has an “ultra-freeze” freezer, which is necessary to hold Pfizer’s vaccine.
Montgomery County Public Health Director Joey Smith says these freezers are “very hard to come by, they’re very pricey and most people don’t have them.”
It currently takes APSU about five days to get results from their on-campus testing and Dr. Phillips says the new lab will allow them to receive results on the preferred PCR tests within 24 hours while preserving accuracy.
Austin Peay has administered more than 5,600 COVID-19 tests so far this fall.