Now you can get a coronavirus rapid test in the Nobel Park

On April 6, AU will begin gradually opening its doors again to students and employees – with a negative coronavirus test result as an admission ticket. To make it easier to get tested close to campus, Central Denmark Region has opened a walk-in test site in the Nobel Park that offers rapid testing.

[Translate to English:] Det nye testcenter i Nobelparken ligger i bygning 1485 og har åbent alle dage kl. 8.00-20.00. Foto: Trine Marie Vestergaard

When you enter the Nobel Park from the intersection of Nordre Ringgade and Randersvej, you’ll catch sight of a long line of people as you approach the deli and the entrance to the lecture hall. The line stretches all the way down Jens Chr. Skous Vej to building 1485, where a purple flag marks the entrance to the test site.

All these people are waiting to get rapid coronavirus tests at the new walk-in test site Central Denmark Region has just opened here. The test site is run by Falck, and offers walk-in antigen tests to anyone who needs one.  

At around noon on Tuesday, there were about 40 people in line. Including two third-year students on the BSc engineering programme in biotechnology. Both of them need a negative test to get access to the lab where they’re working on their final projects.

Next to the bike racks, I also met three students from the biomedicine programme who had just gotten tested to be on the safe side. although they hadn’t been given access to campus by management yet, they wanted to be ready just in case.

New restrictions on campus

Starting today, you need a negative test taken no more than 72 hours ago to participate in activities on campus. This applies to all students and employees at all of AU’s locations.

On 22 March, the Danish Parliament (with the exception of the New Borgerlige party) and the government agreed on a plan for reopening the country. And under this plan, some students and employees can return to campus starting on April 6.

MORE ON THIS STORY: The reopening of the university: What we know so far

On the Friday before the Easter holiday, the senior management team sent out a mail to all students and employees at AU announcing that some students and staff would be allowed to come back to campus.

“We have been authorised to allow up to 20 per cent of the university’s students to participate in classes and exam activities on a daily basis, and have been directed to give first priority to first-year students in relation to in-person classes. We have also been authorised to give an additional 10 per cent of the student body access to reading rooms, study spaces and group rooms on a daily basis. In addition to these groups, students in their final year of Master’s degree programmes which include a practical dimension that is essential to their completion of the programme will also be given access to campus,” the mail reads.

The decision on which students and staff will have access to campus is up to the faculties. Students will be informed about their options via their studies administration office, the study portal and Blackboard. Employees should ask their manager.

Self-testing sites at AU on the way 

Even though the new test site has already opened in the Nobel Park, the senior management team is conscious of the fact that the reopening of society will put a strain on the public healthcare system’s testing capacity.

“For this reason, intensive preparations are being made to ready the university to offer students and staff a supplementary testing setup with supervised self-tests as early as possible in April,” writes the senior management team in the mail to all students and employees at AU.

To make this possible, AU is currently looking to hire 15-20 testers for the new self-test sites at AU from 15 April. The testers will assist users and ensure that they perform the self-tests correctly, in addition to registering test results and reporting positive test results to the Danish Patient Safety Authority.

  • The new test site at the Nobel Park is located in building 1485 and is open every day between 8 am and 8 pm. No appointment is required.