In addition to the mandatory twice-a-week testing requirement for all students living and/or working on campus or a UCSC facility, the campus testing center has expanded its capacity so that it can now administer COVID-19 tests for our current off-site student population. UC Santa Cruz students living in Santa Cruz County may receive voluntary testing up to twice a week.
Faculty and staff who live and/or work on campus or a UCSC facility may also be tested up to once per week.
These sites are for testing when people do not have symptoms of COVID-19. If you feel sick with symptoms of COVID-19 or have come into close contact with someone who has tested positive, you cannot be tested at one of our sites. If you have symptoms, call the Health Center Nurse Advice line at (831) 459-2591 (students) or your primary care physician (staff and faculty).
More information for anyone experiencing symptoms can be found in our COVID-19 FAQs.
You may have heard about a new, more contagious variant of COVID-19 that has been discovered recently. There is no need to be concerned that the UC Santa Cruz lab would not recognize this new version. The UC Santa Cruz testing lab can detect all known variants of COVID-19.
Monitoring ourselves even when we don't have symptoms of COVID-19 is an important step in slowing the spread of the disease, since we know that some people never have symptoms but can still transmit it, or might not have symptoms in the early stage of infection. Help our community curb COVID-19 by participating in regular testing while you feel well.
COVID testing is smart, free, and easy! Sign into your UCSC Health Center portal today to choose a testing date and time that works best for you. Appointments are available one week in advance. Once you arrive at a testing site, the entire process is quick and painless, and our friendly student workers are there to assist you along the way.
Hours and locations for winter quarter are as follows. Note that sites will not take walk-ins during the final 30 minutes they are open.
All testing sites will be closed Monday, January 18, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Monday, February 15, for Presidents' Day.
For more information, visit ucsc.edu/covidtest or call the UC Santa Cruz Student Health Center at (831) 459-2500. For COVID-related questions, send a secure message via Health e-Messenger, aka the UCSC Health Center portal, by logging in and going to Messages/New Message/COVID-19 Question.
Let's keep ourselves healthy and help move our community forward by making regular COVID-19 testing part of our routine!
Interested in obtaining a COVID-19 test but don't live in Santa Cruz?
California residents can visit the California COVID-19 testing site for a list of local testing locations. Residents who live outside of California can obtain local testing information from their state’s health department.
Stay alert with CA Notify
Increase your and your community’s protection from COVID-19 by activating CA Notify—California’s exposure notification system—on your smartphone to get alerts when someone tests positive around you. Learn more at canotify.ca.gov.
