Students and staff at a university in the United States can now get COVID-19 testing kits for free at vending machines on campus.
The University of California's San Diego branch announced in early December that vending machines containing the tests would be placed around campus as part of its "Return to Learn" programme.
The machines were installed just ahead of the university's January winter term and the self-test kits are available at 11 locations.
The kits are identified with a barcode that is scanned when a person takes a test and is linked to their campus identification. Students and employees must return their samples within 72 hours.
Although the majority of classes are happening remotely, students and staff who are living on or coming to campus are required to take a COVID-19 test weekly. A daily symptom and exposure screening is also required.
Those who have been exposed to the virus, have COVID-19 symptoms, or haven't completed all required testing are asked to begin isolation and wait to receive a test result.
Out of 2298 student COVID-19 tests on January 3, just 39 positive cases were reported, according to the university's Return to Learn website.
The university said in December it also plans to expand its detection of the virus through wastewater testing.
If COVID-19 is detected this way, students and staff in buildings linked to the manhole where it was gathered are notified.
Eventually, it plans to cover 200 sample locations across its campus.
California has recorded over 2.4 million cases - the highest number out of all US states. It also has the third-highest number of COVID-19-related deaths out of all states, recording nearly 27,000 since the pandemic began.
