Mississippi State offering free COVID-19 tests for students on their way home for Thanksgiving

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Mississippi State reported Wednesday that they have 284 students under quarantine.

With Thanksgiving just days away, the school started another round of free COVID-19 testing to make sure State students don’t take the virus home. MSU is also regularly sending students health and safety tips specifically geared towards keeping them COVID-19 free so that they also do not bring the virus back.

“I’m definitely glad I’m getting tested before I go home just to make absolutely sure I’m not endangering any family members,” says freshman Lindsay Culpepper.

With Triple A predicting the steepest drop in holiday travel in more than 10 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned the annual holiday gathering into a potential minefield since the turkey and mashed potatoes are not the only things that could get passed around the dinner table.

Culpepper says she is going home to her family in Birmingham, Alabama. Fellow MSU freshman Tanner Jones says he is heading home for Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

That’s why MSU is working to make sure their students are well equipped to stay safe and healthy while they are away from campus.

“We’ve been getting emails about social distancing before we go home, quarantining if we’ve been exposed and then obviously, they’re doing free testing,” Culpepper says.

School staff estimated at least 100 to 200 students showed up Wednesday for the first day of the latest round of testing.

But the four days of COVID tests to clear students for healthy travel are just part of the equation. MSU’s Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter says the school is in the midst of sending out a series of posts on health and safety through Cowbell Well and social media that will extend into the holiday break.

Examples of the information students are getting include the rising number of cases in Mississippi and the latest information from the CDC about the benefits of wearing a mask.

“They’re just trying to make sure every body’s safe and trying to limit gathering sizes and just encouraging you to be really careful around that,” Jones says.

Jones says he absolutely plans on taking the safety habits he’s developed at MSU back home with him.

“Back home in Tennessee, they haven’t been great about enforcing mask mandates and stuff,” he says. “But here they’ve been really hammering down on it.”

The students who spoke with WCBI both agreed they feel safer thanks to MSU’s dedication to their students’ well-being.

The free drive through testing is open to State students only and will remain available Thursday, Friday and Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the parking lot behind the Longest Student Health Center.