The University of Stuttgart will be offering antigen tests to its employees (excluding those who work from home full-time) and students attending mandatory on-site courses approved by the Rectorate, such as practical laboratory courses. These tests will be distributed to all university facilities and institutes by Friday.
The tests are antigen tests for self-administration by untrained people. These are listed and tested by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices. These tests are voluntary. To further minimize the risk of infection at the university, and to improve protection for all employees and students, the university management asks its employees to make use of this offer of testing (unless you are working from home full-time).
“We want to offer university members the best possible protection at the university. That is why we have decided to act on our own initiative and independent of expected assistance from the relevant authorities. At short notice, we were able to independently procure 65,000 antigen tests. I would like to thank all my colleagues, who were committed to ensuring that this was successful”, says Jan Gerken, Chancellor at the Universität Stuttgart.
All university employees who are not working from home full time will be offered two tests per week. This also includes academic and student assistants.
The tests will also be made available for students attending on-site courses or events that have been approved by the Rectorate. The distribution of these tests will be carried out via the responsible institutes or facility.
The university will distribute the self-tests via Division 7 “Central Services” to the offices of the institutes, divisions and central facilities. These are then responsible for storing the self-tests and ensuring that they are delivered – with the minimum possible risk – to employees (and the abovementioned group of students). University facilities and institutes are responsible for distributing this “initial delivery” of self-tests to those present, according to their own criteria.
If you have any questions about the distribution of the corona tests, please contact Division 7.
Each facility or institute will receive 2 tests per week for half of its employees for an initial 8-week period, until June 30, 2021, i.e. as long as the current Occupational Health and Safety Guidelines apply. In total, Division 7 will distribute 45,960 tests this week via the mailrooms and distribution services.
The distribution is based on the assumption that at least half of all employees working for a university institute or facility will be working from home. This assumption is based on the fact that it is currently mandatory for supervisors to make it possible for employees to work from home where possible, and because employees are required to work from home whenever possible.
If the distributed tests have been used and more are required before June 3, 2021, please fill out the order form [de] and submit it to the safety department.
Generally, it is expected that the tests will be administered on the first working day of the week. Please test yourself at home, before you leave for the university. Please read the attached instructions for carrying out a self-test.
If you have any questions about how to carry out a self-test, please contact the Occupational Medical Service.
Just because you have a negative test result does not necessarily mean that you do not have the corona virus. It means that it is less likely that you are a risk to others at the time when you conducted the test. The test is merely a snapshot.
Please be aware: the applicable hygiene and social distancing rules specified in the University of Stuttgart’s Hygiene Concept must be followed at all times – even if you have a negative test result. This applies to all guidelines specified in the Hygiene Concept, particularly the rule that you must wear a face mask.
If your test result is positive, you are banned from entering the university buildings. In this case you must get a PCR test to validate the results of the self-test as soon as possible. To do this, please contact your doctor, the on-call medical service (telephone number: 116 117), or the relevant Health Authority.
If you are employed at the University of Stuttgart, please also inform your supervisor. If you feel well despite the positive test result, you may work from home. If the PCR test result is negative, you may return to work at the university. If the result of the PCR test is positive please follow the University of Stuttgart’s recommendations.
The university’s public corona test center offers an additional option for testing
In addition to the self-tests procured by the University of Stuttgart; from Friday April, 30, 2021, employees and students are welcome to attend the Corona test center at Campus Vaihingen to get tested once a week free of charge.