ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Starting next week UCF will begin random COVID-19 testing with a sample of about 100 students who are members of Greek organizations, which are identified as “higher-risk.”

“I think it's a fine idea, I think it is appropriate for UCF to test all the sororities and frats,” said Chi Omega sorority member Christine Gruttauria.

The testing comes after students in three on-campus sorority houses were told to quarantine because of positive coronavirus cases, and a sorority and fraternity were suspended for allegedly violating the school's coronavirus policy.

“Understand we are in a global pandemic everyone is in this together we need to quarantine ourselves to keep each other safe and healthy, so its a little unnerving, but I am sure this a wakeup call, hopefully for everyone on campus,” said Gruttauria.

​Students who are part of the first round of testing will be notified via their Knights email on Thursday.

“I think it's a very good idea," said Dr. Sadjid Chaudhary. "That's how we figure out the prevalence of the disease in the community.” 

Chaudhary, a local infectious disease specialist, explained the effectiveness of random testing.

“With the random testing, if anybody is found positive in the test then you can look for people in contact with that person, especially control the disease before it breaks out in the community or to other people,” he said.

School leaders say they hope to more quickly identify students or staff who have the virus and are not yet showing symptoms.

Testing will continue throughout the semester with randomly selected members of groups.