Huge swedish study of COVID-19 on Umeå University campus

Region Västerbotten and Umeå University have been assigned by the Public Health Agency of Sweden to carry out the largest study to date in Sweden assessing the prevalence of active COVID-19 infection. The aim is to perform up to 20,000 tests on students and employees on Campus Umeå between 31 August and 10 September.

The main purpose of the prevalence study is to assess the COVID situation at the start of the new semester, and to follow the development when campus opens for campus-based education again. Umeå University is a particularly interesting place to study, not least because the region and Umeå have been relatively spared from infection, but also because Umeå University has students from all over the country with a majority of students from outside the region.

“The results of this study will be very valuable also to other universities, both in Sweden and internationally,” says Anders Johansson, research fellow in infectious diseases at Umeå University, senior consultant physician at Region Västerbotten, and project manager of the Umeå study.

All students and staff at Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), who have a Swedish personal identity number, and who are in Umeå during the test period, are welcome to perform the self-swab testing. Participation is free of charge and all participants get their test results within three days to find out if they have the virus and have to take precautions to prevent further spread of infection.

“The start of the semester can mean an increased risk of spreading infection since more people than usual gather and move around the community. What we do now can have an impact on the spread of disease in the Umeå and Västerbotten region for weeks ahead. Testing and contact tracing have proven efficient tools in the efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” says Stephan Stenmark, infectious disease physician at Region Västerbotten, and member of the project group.

After a week, all participants are asked to take the test again.

“The second test is aimed to study if the spread of disease has been sufficiently reduced,” says Anders Johansson.

The project is called Proactive testing of COVID-19 on Campus Umeå and is a part of a series of national prevalence studies of COVID-19 that the Public Health Agency of Sweden runs. The practical work of handing out material for sampling and collecting samples is performed by the Swedish Armed Forces. Their involvement is undertaken within Operation Gloria, which is a civil-military disease prevention mission led by the Public Health Agency of Sweden and supported by the Swedish Armed Forces. The Umeå mission is called Gloria 8 and the Umeå study will be the biggest mission to date.

Hans Adolfsson, Vice-Chancellor of Umeå University, is very positive about the Public Health Agency of Sweden choosing to carry out this study on Campus Umeå.

“Given the relatively low spread of disease in Västerbotten and the fact that we are a university with students from all over Sweden and many international students, it is valuable if we can contribute with knowledge on what impacts returning to campus-based education can have,” he says.

More information:
Find out more about proactive testing of COVID-19 on Campus Umeå on
www.umu.se/en/covid-19

For more information, please contact:

Anders Johansson
Research Fellow in infectious diseases at Umeå University and Senior Consultant Physician at Region Västerbotten
anders.f.johansson@umu.se
+46 (0)90-785 17 32, +46 (0)70-359 08 30

Stephan Stenmark
County Medical Officer, Region Västerbotten
stephan.stenmark@regionvasterbotten.se
+46 (0)90-785 14 00

Hans Adolfsson
Vice-Chancellor, Umeå University
rektor@umu.se
+46 (0)90-786 53 50

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Pressimages Region Västerbotten