By Madelin Shelton —
The University of Louisville reported 53 positive cases of COVID-19 during its first week of testing. This number was out of a total of 2,621 administered tests, a 2.02% positivity rate.
This number does not include the 85 recently confirmed COVID cases within the athletics department.As of now, the university has a total of 138 confirmed cases.
The numbers were released on Aug. 18 on U of L’s new webpage dedicated to testing statistics, it will be updated every Tuesday by Campus Health Services.
Only tests done on the Belknap and Health Sciences Center campuses will be reported to the dashboard.
U of L administration has been strongly encouraging every member of the campus community to get tested, although the current numbers are low, the number of tests given are a fraction of the total number of students enrolled this semester.
Paige Workman, a junior, expressed great concern with the very low percentage of tests administered relative to the total number of faculty, staff and students closely affiliated with the university.
“I was genuinely shocked that the university did not require everyone returning to campus to get a test,” she said.
Workman went on to express her disappointment in her fellow U of L community members who are choosing not to be tested despite the free access provided by the university. “It is an ignorant and arrogant choice to willingly forego COVID-19 testing prior to returning to campus,” she said.
Testing on the U of L campuses was recently extended until Sept. 4. Those who test positive are contacted by Campus Health to conduct contact tracing, report symptoms and begin a period of self-isolation.
