Less than 2 percent of Ohio State students, faculty and staff tested positive for COVID-19 in the university's initial round of testing for fall semester.
According to testing data released by Ohio State on Tuesday, 80 students (1.16%) tested positive for COVID-19 in student testing conducted from Aug. 14-22 while 12 faculty and staff members (1.44%) tested positive from Aug. 1-22. A total of 7,719 members of the university community have been tested for COVID-19 so far.
Ohio State has also launched a COVID-19 dashboard, which includes additional data on the number of students currently in on-campus isolation or quarantine housing, the availability of personal protective equipment on campus, the status of enhanced cleaning measures on campus and statewide data for COVID-19 cases and hospital capacity in Ohio.
The numbers released by Ohio State on Tuesday are the first COVID-19 testing results released by the university, which has declined to release testing results specific to its athletes, citing privacy concerns.
While the low percentages appear to be a positive early development for Ohio State, “university officials cautioned against drawing broad conclusions from the initial data about the prevalence of COVID-19 within the university community, particularly since the data includes symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals.”
OSU has been taking aggressive measures to attempt to curtail gatherings that could increase the spread of COVID-19, announcing Monday that it had placed 228 students on interim suspension for attending or hosting gatherings of more than 10 people, though The Lantern reported Monday that some students have received suspensions for gatherings they did not attend.
