Penn State adds 203 more COVID-19 cases at University Park since last update, increasing total to 2,679
Penn State has added 203 new COVID-19 cases among University Park students since the last dashboard update, putting Friday’s official case total at 2,679.
Based on university estimates, 2,041 cases are no longer active.
From last Friday to Thursday, according to the twice-weekly COVID-19 dashboard update, 285 students tested positive for the virus out of the 1,670 on-demand tests with results, while another 12 students tested positive out of the 2,692 random-screened tests with results.
Some 348 on-demand tests since Aug. 28 still have results pending, while another 543 random-screened tests are pending.
“Any student who is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or believes they may have been in close contact with a COVID-19 positive individual can be tested on any campus,” university President Eric Barron said last week in a written statement.
Some 134 University Park students are now in on-campus isolation, while another 65 are in quarantine — an overall increase from 123 and 60, respectively, on Tuesday.
Based on numbers recently released by Barron, that puts the quarantine capacity at 43% and the isolation capacity at 54%, although there are an additional 140 spaces if necessary and the university has confirmed it will seek spaces in downtown hotels if more are required.
But that hardly put the minds of some faculty at ease, as the rising case counts have continued to cause concern. Michelle Rodino-Colocino, the local chapter president of the American Association of University Professors, has joined a chorus of others — such as the Coalition for a Just University — in calling for more widespread testing in the fall and universal pre-arrival testing in the spring.
“We’re still not taking a preventative approach; we’re taking a reactive approach,” Rodino-Colocino said. “Penn State is looking at the numbers and saying it doesn’t look too bad yet, but I’m just worried we’re going to regret not taking more aggressive action now. Now feels like the time to act to save lives and the quality of people’s health.”
Barron has repeatedly pointed to three metrics as the most important in battling the pandemic: quarantine and isolation spaces, community transmission and hospital capacity. Many experts also cited community transmission and hospital capacity as the most integral, but there’s disagreement over where Centre County is headed with those last two points.
The university believes transmission has been minimal and, according to testing data released by the State College Area School District, Mount Nittany Health has seen a 1.1% positivity rate from Aug. 26 to Sept. 24 among people in district ZIP codes. However, Dr. David Rubin, director of PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has said that doesn’t show whether community positivity rates are rising — and he believes, because of all the university-related infections, Centre County remains in a precarious position.
There have been noticeable case increases in other areas of Centre County, after all. Boalsburg, for example, saw just three infections over the 39 days before Penn State classes began but has seen 11 new infections in the 39 days since class started. Bellefonte and Pleasant Gap saw that number increase from 17 new infections over that same earlier time frame to 29 new infections. Still, transmission hasn’t occurred anywhere near the scale of University Park or State College.
Hospitalizations at the Mount Nittany Medical Center also remain low for now — although they are currently on the rise, according to the data. A Mount Nittany spokesperson told the CDT on Sept. 18 that it had seen just four COVID-positive patients admitted at that point in the month but, according to the state’s hospital preparedness dashboard, there are now six patients simultaneously hospitalized.
Based on the state’s early warning monitoring system, which is clearly impacted by the student population, there remains cause for concern. Centre County’s overall incidence rate and positivity rate both fell but still remain the highest in the commonwealth.
The monitoring system, which is updated every Friday, shows the county’s incidence rate currently stands at 291.1 infections per 100,000 residents over the last seven days — a decrease from last week’s 350.1. Centre County’s positivity rate is also a state-worst 9.4%, although it was at 12% at this time last week.
The state Department of Health pinpointed the county as an area of concern two weeks ago, and a free pop-up testing site — that can test up to 500 daily — will continue through Saturday at the Nittany Mall.
“I have directed my staff to assist Centre County in identifying localized containment and mitigation efforts to reduce the spread and facilitate communications between large employers, county officials and local governments,” Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said in a written statement.
From March to mid-August, before the official Penn State student move-in, the county had 392 total cases of the coronavirus. Since then, it’s added another 2,462 cases — with most coming in the State College area.
Elsewhere at Penn State, on other campuses, the impact of COVID-19 has varied. Altoona has been the hardest hit, with 126 cases after a recent outbreak. To date, there have been 193 total cases at campuses outside of the main campus: Altoona (126), Erie (22), Hershey (16), Scranton (12), Berks (4), Harrisburg (3), Brandywine (2), Fayette (2), Hazleton (2), New Kensington (2), Beaver (1), Schuylkill (1),
One Penn State employee so far, at University Park, has tested positive through the university.
The case counts reported by the county, via the state Department of Health, and Penn State often don’t match up because the university has acknowledged there is some lag between when it reports the numbers to the state DOH and when the state DOH releases the numbers publicly.
Penn State’s next update to its COVID-19 dashboard will occur sometime Tuesday, and the university will host a virtual “town hall” at 2 p.m. Sunday on COVID-19.
This story was originally published October 2, 2020 at 2:48 PM.
