UAlbany, SEFCU partner on weekly employee COVID testing

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Every week, more than 325 SEFCU employees receive COVID-19 testing as part of a new partnership between the credit union and the University at Albany. To help keep their employees and members safe, frontline SEFCU employees who are not displaying COVID-19 symptoms are now able to participate in UAlbany’s pooled surveillance testing program, which provides a simple and non-invasive way to test the presence of the virus using a saliva sample.

The testing program was developed in the summer by UAlbany’s RNA Institute and the School of Public Health. Students and employees who spend time on any of the University’s three campuses are tested weekly, and recently UAlbany expanded its testing to include SEFCU, a longtime partner of UAlbany.

To supply samples, participants spit into provided test tubes on an assigned date. The samples are then delivered to the RNA Institute where scientists pool multiple samples together and perform laboratory testing to detect the genetic material, or RNA, of the virus. If a pool comes back as presumed positive, the individual presumed positive sample is identified. The person receives a personal follow-up and is asked to isolate and seek official diagnostic testing. UAlbany’s saliva-based surveillance test has a false positive rate of less than 0.3 percent.

“As we prepared to launch our pooled surveillance testing program in the summer, SEFCU employees volunteered to assemble thousands of test kits for UAlbany students and employees,” said UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez. “SEFCU is an extraordinary partner, and we are very pleased to help them offer surveillance testing—a powerful demonstration of their commitment to their employees and to the community.”

This testing program has been instrumental in helping SEFCU maintaining its strategic approach to protecting the university's staff and members while delivering essential banking services to those in need.