Penn State sees expected increase in active COVID-19 cases as students tested ahead of fall break
With thousands of Penn State students voluntarily taking COVID-19 tests before leaving for Thanksgiving break, the number of active coronavirus cases at University Park saw an expected increase Friday — as thousands more tests await results.
According to data from the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, which is updated twice weekly, the University Park campus added 114 new cases since Tuesday’s update, bringing the total number of infected among students and employees to 4,616 — with 324 of those cases considered active, based on university estimates. There were officially 283 active cases Tuesday.
Friday was the final day of in-person classes, as the university will now transition to remote instruction for the rest of the fall semester. Students have next week off for Thanksgiving, and (virtual) classes resume Nov. 30.
In preparation of the break, Penn State offered students free COVID-19 testing until Thursday. Exactly 11,317 on-demand tests were performed since last Friday, but about half — 5,596 — are awaiting results. (Some 164 students tested positive from the 5,721 on-demand tests with results while two students tested positive from the 377 random tests with results.)
“It is critical for students to be tested to reduce the risk of unwittingly infecting others when they return home to family and friends,” Damon Sims, vice president for student affairs, said earlier this week. “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.”
Still, even without a significant increase at Penn State and with students poised 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 27 simultaneous hospitalizations, a significant increase from last Friday’s 11, according to data provided by 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 then? Will the university reopen then?
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. Still, many faculty believe the university needs to test everyone — including students who return to Happy Valley right after Thanksgiving.
“We should have students tested when they come back from break, because they are coming back,” said associate professor Michelle Rodino-Colocino, the president of the local AAUP chapter. “They’re coming back to hang out with their friends in their apartments because they’re young adults. They paid for this.
“And faculty now are starting to feel desperate and powerless, stressed and overworked. Our workdays are longer and more intense and more stressful. ... We’re feeling frustrated and anxious and angry that we’re not being heard.”
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 5,110 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 has seen mixed results. Although the county’s positivity rate fell to 6.4% Friday — from 8.4% last week — the decrease can likely be attributed to a significant increase in testing from those with no outward symptoms, including students who simply wanted to be safe and responsible ahead of Thanksgiving and county residents who aimed to do the same at the free site at the Nittany Mall. Centre County’s incidence rate also rose slightly, possibly due in part to increased testing, with 283.8 infections per 100,000 residents over the last seven days, compared to last week’s 262.9.
Despite the changes, unlike earlier this fall, the county is not among the worst-hit counties in the state. Centre County’s incidence rate currently ranks it 31st out of 67 counties, while its positivity rate is tied for 63rd.
The biggest concern remains with the county’s lone hospital, which is now seeing an average of 18 COVID positive inpatients per day in November — compared to 11 in October and two in September.
“COVID-19 is surging across the country and the increased numbers we are seeing in our own community are certainly a cause for concern,” said Dr. Nirmal Joshi, chief medical officer for Mount Nittany Health. “Even with the prospects for a vaccine looking good, the virus will be part of our lives for at least several months and perhaps longer.”
Some 48 University Park students are now in on-campus isolation for confirmed infections, while another 31 are in quarantine for potential infections — compared to 57 and 39, respectively, on Tuesday. (Most off-campus students choose to quarantine or isolate off campus.)
Elsewhere at Penn State, on other campuses, the impact of COVID-19 has varied. To date, there have been 603 total cases at campuses outside of the main campus, an increase of 102 cases since Tuesday: Altoona (282), Erie (121), Harrisburg (48), Hershey (30), Abington (25), Berks (18), Scranton (15), Schuylkill (11), Brandywine (10), Mont Alto (10), DuBois (6), Beaver (5), Hazleton (5), Fayette (4), Lehigh Valley (4), New Kensington (4), York (2), Dickinson Law (1), Greater Allegheny (1) and Wilkes-Barre (1).
Altoona, which had an outbreak in late September, had 20 new cases from Friday to Thursday. Erie experienced 39 new cases during that same time frame, a week after having 36 cases. And Harrisburg had a semester-high 13 cases.
“The available Return Home testing for all students revealed higher numbers of positive results for three of our campuses that have resident students and demonstrated the importance of conducting this testing prior to departure for the semester,” Kelly Wolgast, director of Penn State’s COVID-19 Operations Control Center, said in a news release. “We are contact tracing all of these students so that they and their close contacts can properly isolate or quarantine as needed for the recommended time.”
Fifty-five Penn State employees so far have tested positive through the university: University Park (29), Altoona (6), Erie (5), Abington (3), Berks (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 Tuesday, although one is not planned for the Friday after Thanksgiving.
