Officials: Covid cases at Pitt are going down, for now - TribLIVE

ketokdepan.blogspot.com

Cases of covid-19 at the University of Pittsburgh appear to be leveling out as students start returning to in-person class, but university officials say it’s too soon to loosen restrictions.

While the university has one of the highest total case counts of any institution in the area, the last two weeks have seen a notable decline in the rate of infection. Only 30 new cases were reported among students from Sept. 15-22, along with one employee case. It’s a sharp contrast to earlier this month, when the university once reported 68 infections in the same amount of time. Once averaging about 10 positive cases per day, the Pittsburgh campus is now averaging only 3.8 cases per day, officials said.

Pitt’s Covid-19 Medical Response Office reported 42 active cases in isolation on Tuesday – at one point, there had been nearly 80.

“It’s been 10 days since we’ve seen double-digit cases on our Pittsburgh campus,” the office reported in a Tuesday email update. “We’re also starting to see more people coming out of isolation than are entering isolation each day, which is encouraging.”

Pitt is now in its second week of in-person classes, but the majority are still being held virtually. Bethany Miga, a university spokeswoman, said only around 11% of classes on the Pittsburgh campus are meeting in-person. That is up from the approximately 8% two weeks ago.

Elise Martin, associate medical director of Infection Prevention and Hospital Epidemiology, said this preliminary success is due to careful planning and early actions. The university required students to shelter in place for seven days before and after arriving back on campus, compounded with a phased move-in system. The university’s surveillance testing has also played a role, she said, as it helps keep track of the virus’ presence in asymptomatic individuals or those without a known exposure.

Early on, the university had been tough on enforcing health and safety guidelines. In late August, eight students were barred from campus and nine Greek life chapters were suspended.

Overall, Martin said there’s been remarkable cooperation between administrators, student health services and the contact tracing team.

“I think we did a very good job of identifying a lot of cases early on, and then doing a lot of the mitigation efforts to help decrease the spread afterwards,” said Martin.

Still, the apparent decline could always reverse, especially as health experts predict spikes in areas with colder weather that would drive people indoors.

Martin said the university has encouraged students to utilize outdoor spaces – soon, that probably won’t be an option. She said the university is trying to come up with more places where students can be together but remain socially distant.

In a video message this week, Dean Kenyon Bonner said the university’s mitigation efforts appear to be working, but he encouraged students to continue physical distancing, wear face coverings and monitor their health.

“I’ve been encouraged by what I’ve seen on and off campus,” he said, “but we have to keep it up.”

Universities nationwide are struggling to contain coronavirus cases among their student population. Several have already halted or paused in-person classes, tightened restrictions or carried out punishments to students not following health guidelines.

Some analyses have shown colleges to be a major factor in rising case levels in their respective counties. Allegheny County officials said Wednesday that the region’s colleges have not produced a “significant” portion of the county’s cases.

“A lot of people here are just doing a lot of the right things to make this really successful,” Martin said. “The students themselves are also a huge factor in why this has been so successful.”

Teghan Simonton is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Teghan at 724-226-4680, tsimonton@triblive.com or via Twitter .