Penn State expands COVID isolation space as cases see ‘anticipated’ rise early in semester
With the expected rise in COVID cases at the start of the semester, Penn State has been forced to at least temporarily expand its isolation space to accommodate more on-campus students who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The move is not entirely a surprise, as university officials said a month ago that contingency plans were in place if more students needed to isolate. Penn State spokesperson Wyatt DuBois acknowledged Thursday morning that University Park’s 46 on-campus isolation rooms were full — with 28 additional off-campus spaces in use as of Wednesday afternoon.
DuBois did not specify where the off-campus spaces were located — outside of explaining they were “in a single local hotel” — but said that location is being phased out in favor of the Nittany Lion Inn, especially with the availability of hotel rooms tightening ahead of the football team’s home opener Sept. 10.
“With students testing in and out of isolation each day, we are confident that we have sufficient space to continue providing isolation rooms and related services as needed for students who live on campus,” DuBois said in a written statement.
As part of Penn State’s newest COVID plans, isolation spaces — which once included hundreds of single-occupancy rooms at Eastview Terrace — were greatly reduced based on several factors. Those included spring isolation space use, updated guidelines regarding isolation-period length from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fall usage projections and the limited availability of space due to the size of the freshman class.
With the availability of vaccines, the relative national decline of the virus and the increase in at-home testing, Penn State had already discontinued its COVID-19 dashboard that offered biweekly updates to the number of student and employee cases. However, according to the CDC — which continues to track several relevant data points like hospitalizations — Centre County, home to University Park, rates as having a low COVID-19 Community Level, based on data that will be updated again by Thursday evening.
For the previous two semesters, Penn State’s COVID cases peaked early in the semester before mostly leveling off. Last fall, University Park had 196 positive cases the week after class began. By the end of September, weekly cases stayed below 50 until students returned after Thanksgiving break. This past spring, positive cases again peaked the week after class started (631 cases) but nearly halved for the three proceeding weeks. By late February, weekly cases in the spring semester never again surpassed 50.
Class this semester began Aug. 22.
“The university is committed to meeting the needs of our students and our plans and resources will continue to evolve as needs and pandemic conditions change, as they have from the beginning of the pandemic,” DuBois added.
This story was originally published September 1, 2022 at 2:58 PM.
