STOCKHOLM, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Umea University in northern Sweden launched on Monday a mass testing experiment with the aim of finding out whether on-campus teaching increases the COVID-19 contamination rate.

"It is a large, reality-based experiment," Anders Johansson, a researcher on infectious diseases at Umea University, told Swedish Television on Monday.

Johansson explained that the study is the largest of its kind ever to be conducted in Sweden and will involve around 20,000 students and staff members over a two-week period.

In the first week, participants will be tested at three different testing stations across campus to see how many of them carry the virus. They will be allowed to continue taking part in lessons and all 20,000 participants will then be tested a second time a week later to see how many in the group have been infected.

Sweden's Public Health Agency, the National Pandemic Center and the Swedish Armed Forces will help carry out the study, which aims to establish how the virus spreads at universities and colleges conducting on-campus, rather than remote, teaching.

"This is a way of finding an answer to the question of whether or not it is OK to begin having regular physical classes on campuses or if that, in fact, increases the rate of infection," Johansson told Swedish Television.

Johansson insisted there is a plan in place to break a potential infection chain as several volunteer doctors are at hand to conduct contact tracing on behalf of study participants who test positive for the coronavirus.

Even if the infection rate has been relatively low in Umea, Johansson believed that the findings of his study will be of interest both in Sweden and abroad as several countries have seen a spike in cases among young people and there is widespread concern that they may spread to the elderly and other vulnerable individuals, the report said. Enditem

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