LUBBOCK, Texas — Texas Tech University Student Health Services on Monday opened a free drive-thru COVID-19 testing site for students and faculty.

Texas Tech Vice President for Research and Innovation, Joe Heppert, said the university is being proactive as students return to Lubbock.

“We’ve realized as a large number of students are coming back and we are going to have a big population coming into the city of Lubbock from a lot of places around the state,” he said. “We are interested in ensuring any individuals who are concerned about their health will have the opportunity to have this initial test.”

Testing is open to those with or without symptoms as a precaution to take before potentially spreading the virus around the community.

“We understand not everybody who carries COVID-19 is showing symptoms, so we really want this to be an opportunity to reassure the community that we are looking at these infections to make sure we don’t spread this through the community,” Heppert said.

If students do test positive, Heppert said the university has made arrangements.

“We have rooms available for some students who may need to self isolate,” he said. “And in addition to that, we’ve gone out into the community and arranged for a number of hotel rooms and apartments.”

Heppert said that so far, the university has received a positive response from faculty and staff who are taking advantage of the testing site and are expecting more students to come through within the next few weeks.

Students and faculty can go to the Texas Tech website to register, through August 24.