Penn State sees another increase in COVID-19 cases at University Park, as total expands to 4,240
For the first time since the Oct. 13 update, Penn State saw more than 150 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday.
According to data from the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, which is updated twice weekly, the University Park campus has added 153 new cases since Friday’s update, bringing the total number of infected among students and employees to 4,240 — with 281 of those cases considered active, based on university estimates. Four new employees and 149 students tested positive.
“We are carefully monitoring the recent upswing in cases at University Park and some of our commonwealth campuses,” Penn State President Eric Barron said in a written statement. “We believe that some of the increases are tied to gatherings over Halloween weekend, and we are working closely with students on contact tracing to limit further spread of the virus.
“This serves as a reminder to us all that the virus is still very much present, and we must work together and follow all public health guidelines — at all times — in order to protect one another.”
From Friday to Sunday, 62 students tested positive out of the 396 on-demand tests with results (with 26 tests since Oct. 23 still pending), while two students tested positive out of the 605 random-screened tests with results (with 260 tests pending).
Because of the way testing is now done, the random-screened tests often won’t show positives until Friday’s update. The number of Friday-Sunday cases listed directly above also do not include the new results from old pending tests, which explains the other additional positive cases since the last update.
With last week’s decrease in county testing positivity — which was somewhat unexpected — and with students set to leave campus Nov. 20, the lead investigator of a COVID-19 projection model now believes the county might be better positioned to weather next month compared to most of the state. (As a whole, the commonwealth is facing a concerning increase in cases and set another single-day high for cases Tuesday. Although Penn State’s cases saw an increase, it’s still a far cry from the university’s peak of more than 400 cases during a late September update and Tuesday’s small spike was not a surprise.)
“Overall, as I look at the deteriorating situation across the state, I’m more optimistic about Centre County, given what’s about to play out in the next few weeks, which is kids leaving campus,” said Dr. David Rubin, director of PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “I think Centre is going to be one of these places that defies the rules a little bit in December due to the changing demographics of the region.”
That’s not to say no concern remains, even after students head home. According to data provided by the Mount Nittany Medical Center, there are currently 19 patients hospitalized, which is an increase over Friday’s 17. The rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations is among the most important metrics, according to many experts and officials, and the rate more than tripled at Mount Nittany in October compared to September, going from 16 to 58.
The hospital has already implemented its Surge Capacity Plan but, with many students leaving in two weeks in addition to changing data, Rubin said he expected those numbers to likely decline before the New Year as the population density — and risk — decreases.
“The real question, to me, is what’s your plan for January when the students come back?” Rubin asked, adding that any county progress could be wiped out if the university does not improve upon its fall reopening plan.
That’s been a question by the Penn State community for quite some time. The university’s Faculty Senate passed a resolution last month, calling on Penn State 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 now book a testing appointment, with testing offered from Thursday to Nov. 19 at University Park, although CJU/PSU has petitioned for such testing to be made mandatory.
“Looking ahead, the return of students in January is going to be incredibly risky given the likelihood that the pandemic will continue to pick up steam over the winter,” said Sarah Townsend, an organizer for CJU/PSU. “CJU is calling on Penn State to a) test all students prior to arrival, and ideally after arrival as well; b) conduct 10% daily surveillance testing; c) acquire CLIA certification of its on-campus lab to ensure accuracy of results and external oversight; and d) vastly improve its testing, quarantine, and reporting protocols.
“We especially want to emphasize that the university should plan now to de-densify the campuses by only bringing back a limited number of students based on its testing capabilities.”
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 seeing key metrics move in the right direction. Centre County’s testing positivity rate fell to 5.6% Friday after reaching 6.1% the previous week. The county’s incidence rate has also decreased Friday, to 146.6 infections per 100,000 residents over the last seven days compared to the previous week’s 175.1.
Penn State’s quarantine and isolation spaces also remain less than half-full. Some 48 University Park students are now in on-campus isolation for confirmed infections, while another 42 are in quarantine for potential infections — compared to 47 and 43, respectively, on Friday.
Still, Rubin was adamant that Centre County can’t afford to relax and suddenly let up in its mitigation efforts. When temperatures grow colder, he said, cases of COVID-19 tend to be more severe and ventilator use increases.
“I would encourage people to keep doing the same stuff,” he said. “Mask. Social distance. And be careful about holiday parties and Thanksgiving; you’re not at a positivity rate of 1%.”
Elsewhere at Penn State, on other campuses, the impact of COVID-19 has varied. To date, there have been 412 total cases at campuses outside of the main campus: Altoona (245), Erie (45), Harrisburg (26), Hershey (23), Scranton (15), Berks (12), Abington (11), Mont Alto (8), Brandywine (4), Fayette (4), New Kensington (4), Beaver (3), Hazleton (3), Schuylkill (3), Lehigh Valley (2), York (2), DuBois (1) and Wilkes-Barre (1). Altoona, which had an outbreak in late September, had one new case from Friday to Sunday.
Twenty-eight Penn State employees so far — 19 at University Park, four at Altoona and one each at Abington, Erie, Harrisburg, New Kensington and York — 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 Friday.
