“We are going to be super ready for the students,” said Carla Finkielstein, director of the Virginia Tech Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.

 The researchers have already assembled 10,000 collection units that will be used to collect samples from students to analyze for coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.

 “When this pandemic exploded and we were verge of deciding what to do next, the university had two options,” Finkielstein said. “One was to wait for someone to help us, and the other one was to put our collective heads and resources together and do something to serve our community. Our university chose to be proactive. We want to help take care of our students. We are bringing them back, and we are testing them. On top of that, working closely with the health departments, we are able to provide test analysis for many other people in the communities around us.”