Shippensburg University is continuing to get its on-campus rapid testing program back up and running.

Officials stopped testing at the Raider Rapid Results (R3) Center in early March and modified testing protocols for SU campus community members. 

The lab that processed SU’s samples is located in Sunnyvale, California. State health department officials suspended the lab from analyzing samples because it did not have the correct out-of-state permit.

Pennsylvania Department of Health Deputy Press Secretary Maggi Barton said the ShieldT3 labs did not have a Pennsylvania clinical laboratory permit and could not continue testing the state’s samples until they had one. 

Neither ShieldT3 or university officials were aware of this requirement when R3 testing began, according to Barton. 

SU stopped the R3 testing after notification of the issue, according to Sue Mukherjee, SU chief strategy officer and senior associate provost. 

The university is working to get approval from the state health officials to begin testing in ShieldT3’s Washington, D.C., lab, which meets the health department’s out-of-state requirements, Mukherjee said. 

“Yes, we acknowledge challenges with our testing initiative but Shippensburg University and ShieldT3 have (and continue to) work on getting the R3 Testing Lab operational so we can serve the Shippensburg University community soon,” Mukherjee said. 

Mukherjee added that R3 testing should re-open by the end of April, however, it depends on how long it takes the department of health to process the Washington, D.C., lab’s permit.

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