Penn State sees small increase in COVID-19 cases at University Park, as total surpasses 4,500
Penn State’s COVID-19 case rate didn’t see any substantial increases again Tuesday, the ninth time in 10 dashboard updates where the university reported 150 new cases or fewer.
According to data from the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, which is updated twice weekly, the University Park campus added exactly 150 new cases since Friday’s update, bringing the total number of infected among students and employees to 4,502 — with 283 of those cases considered active, based on university estimates. Five new employees and 145 students tested positive.
Despite the numbers nearly breaking the milestone of 150 new cases, university officials pointed out that departure testing was also included in those figures. So, with additional testing, more positive cases were expected compared to the last update’s 112 cases.
Students leaving Friday for Thanksgiving break can still be tested for free by Thursday, by scheduling an appointment on the website virusinfo.psu.edu/departure-testing.
“We urge all students to take advantage of the departure testing being offered at no cost to them,” Damon Sims, vice president for Student Affairs, said in a written statement. “For those students who have not already signed up for this testing, or have missed their previously scheduled test at University Park, there is still time.
“It is critical for students to be tested to reduce the risk of unwittingly infecting others when they return home to family and friends. We are encouraging students who test positive to isolate on campus or in a suitable single-occupancy space off campus before leaving for Thanksgiving break — or to take appropriate precautions to self-isolate if they do choose to return home.”
From Friday to Sunday, 50 students tested positive out of the 2,313 on-demand tests with results (with 1,088 tests since Oct. 30 still pending), while two students tested positive out of the 10 random-screened tests with results (with 30 tests pending). One employee also tested positive during that same time frame.
Because so many students are opting for voluntary tests before leaving for Thanksgiving break, there are fewer random tests than usual this week and nearly a 500% increase in completed on-demand tests compared to this time last week. 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.
Still, even without a sharp increase at Penn State and with students set to leave, plenty of concerns remain in Centre County.
Dr. David Rubin, director of PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said he believed that the virus has spilled over to the non-student community. Mount Nittany Medical Center is now up to 20 simultaneous hospitalizations, a significant increase from Friday’s 11, according to to the hospital. And the entire commonwealth has seen a multitude of warning signs, from doubling previous daily case highs to doubling weekly hospitalizations.
“It’s not good,” Rubin told the CDT on Monday. “You’re in a very significant crisis because your (hospital) bed availability in Centre County is much lower than it is elsewhere.”
When it comes to Penn State, the biggest remaining question now shifts to next semester. Penn State will switch to remote instruction after Friday, just as it was originally planned, and in-person classes won’t resume again until the spring semester starts Jan. 19. But how will the university reopen?
That’s been a point of contention for weeks. 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 not yet publicly announced its pre-arrival testing plans, although state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine alluded to new testing recommendations Tuesday for colleges. Michelle Rodino-Colocino, an associate professor and chapter president of the AAUP, would also like to see a greater emphasis on testing.
“Between our rising cases and Pennsylvania’s rising cases, as well as our decreasing hospital capacity here in State College, we need to have all students tested on both ends of Nov. 20,” Rodino-Colocino said. “I have a lot of students telling me they are planning on returning after Nov. 20 because they live in apartments and have leases. They want to come back. ... But now we need to do our end of the bargain and test students on both ends of the fall break.”
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 4,848 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 earlier this month. Centre County’s testing positivity rate rose to 8.4% Friday after reaching 5.6% the previous week. The county’s incidence rate also increased to 262.9 infections per 100,000 residents over the last seven days compared to the previous week’s 146.6.
Despite the increases, unlike earlier this fall, the county is not among the worst-hit counties in the state. Centre County’s positivity rate currently ranks it 40th out of 67 counties, while its incidence rate is 16th.
“(B)e vigilant and thoughtful in consistently practicing preventive measures, including masking, social distancing and frequent hand washing,” added Dr. Nirmal Joshi, chief medical officer of Mount Nittany Health.
Some 57 University Park students are now in on-campus isolation for confirmed infections, while another 39 are in quarantine for potential infections — compared to 62 and 42, respectively, on Friday.
Elsewhere at Penn State, on other campuses, the impact of COVID-19 has varied. To date, there have been 501 total cases at campuses outside of the main campus: Altoona (265), Erie (73), Harrisburg (35), Hershey (27), Abington (17), Berks (16), Scranton (15), Mont Alto (10), Schuylkill (10), Brandywine (8), Hazleton (5), Fayette (4), New Kensington (4), Beaver (3), DuBois (2), Lehigh Valley (2), York (2), Dickinson Law (1), Greater Allegheny (1) and Wilkes-Barre (1). Altoona, which had an outbreak in late September, had three new cases from Friday to Sunday.
Fifty-two Penn State employees so far have tested positive through the university: University Park (29), Altoona (6), Abington (3), Berks (2), Erie (2), Harrisburg (2), Hershey (2), Dickinson Law (1), DuBois (1), Hazleton (1), Mont Alto (1), New Kensington (1) and York (1).
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.
