Penn State University campus
WPSU
Penn State’s new COVID-19 dashboard reports two positives on University Park campus
-
Min Xian/SpotlightPA
WPSU
Penn State University campus
Penn State is reporting two students on the University Park campus have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the university’s new COVID-19 Dashboard Friday.
The university has performed 520 tests on students and 95 tests on employees since Aug. 9, according to the dashboard. These numbers combined random surveillance tests and symptomatic tests.
Two symptomatic tests and 198 surveillance tests from students are still pending results. Five out of 11 surveillance tests from employees came back negative, while the remaining six are awaiting results.
Currently, there is one student and one employee in isolation.
Penn State said the dashboard includes data “from symptomatic testing on campus, results of student-athletes tested through Intercollegiate Athletics and test results from private health care providers that are reported to University Health Services or Occupational Medicine.” Pre-arrival testing results are not included in the dashboard, since they were not conducted on campus.
The university plans to update the dashboard every Monday and will begin surveillance testing on Aug. 24, the first day of fall classes. It warns the data for the first week will be limited.
In a July virtual town hall, Penn State said it plans to conduct asymptomatic tests of at least 1% of its population of students, faculty and staff on all campuses daily. And students who are returning to campus for the fall semester have been asked to conduct pre-arrival tests before they come back.
After a large gathering of mostly unmasked students outside of campus dorms Wednesday night, Penn State President Eric Barron warned students to meet the university’s safety requirements, saying, “if the University needs to pivot to fully remote instruction we will.”
The university said its “multi-layered testing, monitoring, and mitigating approach” will keep on-campus learning possible. “But make no mistake, it only takes a few to ruin it for the many, as we have seen at other universities across the country,” Barron said.
The Purple Buck Newsletter
Get insights into WITF’s newsroom and an invitation to join in the pursuit of trustworthy journalism.
