GuideSafe™ Entry Testing provides free COVID-19 testing for every college student attending a public four-year and two-year college in the state before returning to campus. The ability to test every student within 14 days of entry to Alabama college campuses helps maintain a safe environment and slow the spread of COVID-19.
Only higher education students who have made an appointment through GuideSafe, at one of our 13 locations, can be tested.
- Auburn, AL
- Birmingham, AL
- East Huntsville, AL
- Florence, AL
- Hoover, AL
- Huntsville, AL
- Jacksonville, AL
- Livingston, AL
- Mobile, AL
- Montgomery, AL
- Talladega, AL
- Troy, AL
- Tuscaloosa, AL
Check your university email address for information about entry testing.
- Student receives email with link to register online for testing.
- Student schedules test at an approved site on the day and time of their choosing.
- Student receives email confirmation of test appointment with instructions of what to bring and information about what to expect with sample collection.
- Student receives appointment reminder.
- Student arrives at testing site with confirmation email and identification. Confirmation email can be shown via phone.
- After identify verification, student completes sample collection under observation at the testing site.
- Sample is transported by the testing site to the testing lab and run within 24 hours.
- Testing lab reports test result to the student’s state department of public health and GuideSafe™ Entry Testing.
- Student receives email notification from GuideSafe™ of test result.
- Student provides test result to the student’s university or college for medical clearance and to satisfy testing requirement.
- GuideSafe™ Entry Testing provides the testing results to university or college.
Yes, masks are required at all testing facilities.
If you are a higher education student registered through GuideSafe, your COVID-19 test is free.
From the check-in process to dropping off your test kit, it should take approximately five to ten minutes.
Your test result will be shared with you, your university and the Alabama Department of Public Health.
You will need a mask, your account ID and a photo ID.
Yes, proceed to the registration table at the testing facility.
No, you must schedule an appointment using the link provided by your university.
You will need to contact your university.
You will receive results within 48 hours of testing.
Your results will be emailed to you and accessible through the GuideSafe portal.
If the appointment time was today, yes. If it’s the wrong day, no. You will need to reschedule.
No, only registered participants are allowed past the entrance.
Yes, proceed inside and you will be provided a mask.
The test will be a self administered swab in the nostril — though not the more invasive nasopharyngeal swab.
How to Collect Your Sample
Using the nasal swab collection kit is fast and simple. You will be collecting a deep nasal specimen in the provided collection tube prior to returning the sample to the collection bin.
Included in the kit:
- 1 nasal swab
- 1 collection tube
To Collect Your Sample:
- Carefully open the provided tube and place it on a steady surface and open nasal swab.
- Tilt your head back 70 degrees.
- Insert nasal swab into one nostril.
- While gently rotating, insert swab less than one inch (about 2 cm) until resistance is met.
- Rotate the swab for 10 seconds against the nasal wall in a circular pattern.
- Repeat in the other nostril using the same swab.
- Insert the sampling end of the swab into the collection device.
- Gently snap the swab below tube opening.
- Seal the swab in the collection tube with the original cap.
- Ensure cap is tightly sealed and place tube in bag. Tightly seal bag.
- Drop test kit in collection bin.
Your sample will be transported to the lab for COVID-19 RT-PCR testing
No, no media is allowed inside the testing site.
