Penn State’s COVID-19 count steady with 87 new cases, although concern remains
Penn State’s COVID-19 cases remained relatively steady Friday — with 87 new cases reported since the last update — although, with rising hospitalizations and the potential for large gatherings this weekend, concern remains.
Friday’s official case total at University Park now stands at 3,882. Based on university estimates, 277 of those cases are still considered active.
From last Friday to Thursday, according to the twice-weekly COVID-19 dashboard update, 110 students tested positive out of the 1,089 on-demand tests with results (with 179 tests since Oct. 9 still pending), while 17 students tested positive out of the 2,179 random-screened tests with results (with 446 tests pending). No new employees tested positive during that same time frame.
“Our positive cases are remaining flat and I’m hopeful that they will remain there or drop further if we continue to follow public health recommendations,” Penn State President Eric Barron said in a written statement. “With Halloween and the Ohio State game this weekend, we all must remain committed to mask wearing, social distancing and avoiding large gatherings.
“We absolutely cannot have a repeat of the large gatherings that occurred during last week’s football game. Watch the game with your roommates or your ‘pod’ of friends, stay away from large watch parties and Halloween celebrations and act responsibly.”
Some 61 University Park students are now in on-campus isolation for confirmed infections, while another 42 are in quarantine for potential infections — compared to 63 and 37, respectively, on Tuesday.
Despite the numbers not rising as sharply a they once were — there were more than 450 new cases during a late September update — officials aren’t resting easy. Barron, like most experts and officials, has pointed toward community transmission and hospital capacity as critical factors in fighting the pandemic. And Dr. David Rubin, director of PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told the Centre Daily Times again Thursday those factors are not working in the county’s favor.
“We’re in the exponential growth phase of what’s occurring throughout the state, and things are going to get very difficult. Very quickly,” Rubin said. “Worse than we’ve seen thus far.”
According to data provided by the Mount Nittany Medical Center, there are currently 17 patients hospitalized — tying the record number of COVID-19 inpatients at the hospital — ranging in age from 31 to 92. The hospital has already implemented its Surge Capacity Plan and colder weather, with its expected rise in cases, has only just started.
For comparison’s sake, there were 16 total hospitalizations throughout the month of September. So far, in October, that’s nearly tripled to 47.
“I can say now that the Penn State reopening did not go well,” Rubin said. “It has led to widespread community transmission throughout the central region of Pennsylvania, alongside other school reopenings.”
Several faculty- and student-based groups have repeatedly expressed concern that the university hasn’t done enough to mitigate the spread. Penn State’s Faculty Senate recently passed a resolution, calling on the university to provide more COVID-19 testing, greater transparency and universal pre-arrival testing before the spring semester — requests that have been echoed by groups such as the American Association of University Professors and the Coalition for a Just University.
The university has also announced it will test all students who want to be tested prior to leaving for Thanksgiving break Nov. 20. Students can book a testing appointment by Nov. 6, with testing offered Nov. 12-19 at University Park, although CJU/PSU has called for such testing to be made mandatory — a move AAUP supports.
“AAUP’s position is that Penn State can do the right thing, therefore it should do the right thing,” said Michelle Rodino-Colocino, AAUP chapter president, alluding to the university’s finances.
She added: “Penn State needs to take swift action to prevent the spread of COVID. It’s in the national news again today that we’re about to see more of an uptick because of the weather, and now we have the football game — and we saw what happened last weekend. So we absolutely have to test these students before they go back home.”
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 3,834 cases — with most coming in the State College area.
Based on the state’s early warning monitoring system, which is updated every Friday and remains clearly impacted by the student population, the county is starting to see key metrics move the wrong way after some good news last week. Centre County’s testing positivity rate rose to 6.1% Friday after reaching 4.9% last week and 5.6% the week before. The county’s incidence rate has also increased from last week, to 175.1 infections per 100,000 residents over the last seven days compared to last week’s 125.
More than a month ago, Rubin projected the county’s numbers would decline before increasing once more. And he’s not predicting another decrease in the near future.
Elsewhere at Penn State, on other campuses, the impact of COVID-19 has varied. To date, there have been 344 total cases at campuses outside of the main campus: Altoona (224), Erie (29), Harrisburg (20), Hershey (19), Scranton (14), Berks (11), Abington (5), Mont Alto (4), Brandywine (3), Fayette (3), New Kensington (3), Schuylkill (3), Beaver (2), Hazleton (2), DuBois (1) and Lehigh Valley (1). Altoona, which had an outbreak a month ago, had three new cases from Friday to Thursday.
Nineteen Penn State employees so far — 13 at University Park, three at Altoona, one at Abington, one at Erie and one at New Kensington — have 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.
