SUNY officials are increasing testing requirements for in-person learning this upcoming spring semester.

All on-campus students, faculty and staff must get tested every week. At Purchase College, this means testing around 1,000 students weekly. "It helps. I mean, the safer, the better - so keeping the campus safe," says student Jared Nesci.

The hope is to adapt to the current state of the pandemic, which includes new strains and more cases overall.

 More frequent testing is the latest health protocol SUNY is using to keep its schools open this semester.

This includes pre-testing and quarantining students before the semester, mandatory masks at all times, and canceling spring break.

These new rules impact all 64 SUNY campuses, including those in Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess and Ulster counties.

SUNY will revisit the 100% weekly testing requirement depending on the positivity rate in the state and regions throughout the semester.

Since the start of the academic year that began last August, SUNY has done more than 700,000 tests with a positivity rate around .5, according to officials. They say the data shows in-person learning at SUNY schools is not responsible for spreading the virus.

Students will begin to move onto campus this Friday and Saturday, and testing will take place next Monday and Tuesday.

If all goes right, remote learning will begin that Monday and in-person learning resumes the following week.