KU reports COVID-19 cases from initial testing at Lawrence, Overland Park campuses
The University of Kansas announced that 89 people, all but two of whom are students, tested positive for COVID-19 at its Lawrence and Edwards campuses, according to initial results released Thursday.
Of the 87 students who tested positive, a large majority came from the college’s fraternity and sorority community, Chancellor Douglas Girod said in message posted online.
Girod said he and other campus officials met with leaders of the fraternity and sorority community Wednesday night to stress the importance of adhering to the health and safety guidelines and rules while laying out some additional policy recommendations. The university plans to follow up with additional targeted testing as needed, he said.
In an interview with CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Thursday, Dr. Lee Norman, the secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said he was concerned about five COVID-19 clusters reported at Kansas colleges or universities.
“Granted classes just started on Monday, so we know that the ones testing positive probably brought it in from their home communities,” Norman said. “I know we’re going to have more outbreaks than just the five.”
Colleges and Universities are not going to be safe island as long as long as the community numbers are still going up, Norman said. While schools can control the teaching and learning environments, in the off-campus housing, particularly fraternities and sororities, a lot depends on governance structures and civic responsibilities within the Greek communities, he said.
“I think there needs to be a significant curtailment of their social activities because they are just not getting it . . . ,” Norman said. “I’ve kind of given up a little bit on the fraternity and sorority members quite honestly.”
As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, KU had received 7,088 results from its COVID-19 saliva test for a positivity rate of 1.25%. The non-students who tested positive are faculty and staff.
“When we decided to move forward with broad entry testing of our community, we knew that inevitably we would receive some positive results,” Chancellor Douglas Girod said in message posted online.
“This positivity rate is in line with what we’ve expected and prepared for as we began this process in consultation with our Pandemic Medical Advisory Team.”
The university is testing every student, faculty and staff member for COVID-19 as they return to campus and before the beginning of on-campus activities and classes.
The reason for the entry test is to identify positive cases early and isolate them away from campus, Girod said. People who test positive receive instructions to self-isolate in accordance with guidelines from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Watkins Health Services.
The university also hopes to establish a baseline of positivity rates among its campus populations to determine future safety, prevention, education and testing efforts. The university plans to conduct targeting testing and random sampling after the initial round of testing, Girod said.
Last week, students began moving their belonging into dorms rooms after being assigned times to avoid crowds.
The staged move-in process helped identify positive cases among those living on-campus earlier so those students could be isolated before coming to campus, Girod said.
“Thanks to that preparation, so far we do not have any cases isolating in student housing,” he said. “We expect that will likely change as new students continue to move in, and we are prepared to offer spaces for those students who need to self-isolate.”
To prevent the spread of the disease, Girod urged the KU community to wear a mask, stay six feet apart from others and wash their hands frequently as well as refrain from hosting social gatherings and events.
“We know that challenges with following these requirements are not limited to any one group in particular,” Girod said. “If we are to open successfully and avoid moving more fully online as other universities across the country have done in recent days, all of us — students, faculty, and staff alike — will have to be the very best versions of ourselves.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 10:43 AM.
