Penn State sees expected increase in COVID-19 cases, as results revealed from departure testing
Penn State experienced another expected increase Tuesday in COVID-19 cases, after publishing the results from thousands of tests taken prior to students’ departure for Thanksgiving break.
According to data from the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, which is expected to be updated just once this week, the University Park campus added 229 new cases since Friday’s update, bringing the total number of infected among students and employees to 4,845 — with 354 of those cases considered active, based on university estimates. There were officially 324 active cases Friday.
Some of those active cases come from students no longer living on or near campus, although it’s not known exactly how many. In a news release Tuesday, however, the university wrote that, “All students who tested positive have been contacted by the university’s contact tracing team. These students also have received health guidance and been advised to isolate so as to prevent further transmission of the virus.”
Penn State is on break until Nov. 30. As it was planned since the summer, in-person classes will not resume until the spring semester — and the rest of the fall semester will be held remotely.
Some key numbers from Tuesday’s dashboard update:
- There were 379 student COVID-19 cases last week (Nov. 13-19), the most since the first week in October. But more than 15,000 tests were also conducted last week, more than twice as many tests as any other week.
- Six University Park employees were found positive last week, while another employee was positive between Friday and Sunday.
- From Friday to Sunday, there were 10 additional student coronavirus cases out of 30 tests (28 on-demand, two random) with results.
- Some 170 student tests (156 on-demand, 14 random) are still awaiting results.
- Thirty-one University Park students are now in on-campus isolation for confirmed infections, while another eight are in quarantine for potential infections. (Most off-campus students choose to quarantine or isolate off-campus.)
Still, even with many students no longer in Happy Valley, 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 30 simultaneous hospitalizations, according to data provided by the hospital, a significant increase from the 11 on Nov. 13. And, as of Tuesday afternoon, there were twice as many confirmed county deaths in the last six weeks (22) as there were in the first 30 weeks (11) of the pandemic.
“It’s not good,” Rubin told the CDT last week. “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 and what the university’s pre-arrival testing might look like. The 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 recently alluded to new testing recommendations 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,” associate professor Michelle Rodino-Colocino, the president of the local AAUP chapter, said last week. “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 5,483 cases — with most coming in the State College area.
Elsewhere at Penn State, on other campuses, the impact of COVID-19 has varied. To date, there have been 644 total cases at campuses outside of the main campus: Altoona (290), Erie (124), Harrisburg (57), Hershey (33), Abington (27), Berks (20), Schuylkill (15), Scranton (15), Mont Alto (11), Brandywine (10), DuBois (8), New Kensington (8), Hazleton (6), Beaver (5), Lehigh Valley (5), Fayette (4), York (2), Dickinson Law (1), Greater Allegheny (1), Shenango (1) and Wilkes-Barre (1). Altoona, which had an outbreak in late September, had 28 new cases since Nov. 13.
Sixty-four Penn State employees so far have tested positive through the university:University Park (35), Altoona (6), Erie (5), Abington (3), Berks (2), Harrisburg (2), Hazleton (2), Hershey (2), Mont Alto (2), Dickinson Law (1), DuBois (1), New Kensington (1), Shenango (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.
