The small college at which I teach, Juniata College in central PA (about an hour south of Penn State), has just announced the first COVID case among on-campus students, caught through surveillance testing. Everyone tested negative upon arriving on campus before August 17th.
I agree. By Nov, we will see what works (if anything) to keep the virus at bay - do those LACs with tons of testing need to stay in their most cautious stages or can they open dining and loosen up a bit as long as testing twice a week? Will Notre Dame, Duke, Vandy be able to have in person class or will that spike cases and send everyone back to remote? Will larger schools have to go remote in order to keep cases level?
I wonder when colleges will make decisions about spring. Hopefully, more will make them earlier and stick with their decisions this time.
and this positive news from the Broad Institute https://www.newsbreak.com/massachusetts/cambridge/news/2051241095056/broad-institute-less-than-1-in-1000-new-england-college-students-testing-positive-for-coronavirus
I’m happy to hear this. However it still seems premature. Most schools haven’t been in session very long. I’m interested in the numbers for October 1.
Also here’s another possible fly in the ointment
https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/09/04/covid-vaccine-dry-ice-shortage
And I thought too much CO2 was the issue these days ?
Purdue is entering week 3 of in person instruction today and positivity rates are trending down.
How much (and how) are they testing? Sorry…I’m sure you’ve mentioned it before but I forgot. If it’s not testing everyone regularly then how can they really know if the rate of actual infection is trending down? Not looking to pick a fight. Just curious!
Thanks, @mamaedefamilia. In my defense, it would help if they called it a “dashboard”. LOL. 
They tested everyone prior to arrival and are now randomly testing 10%/week plus aggressive contact tracing. They tested 5700 students in the last 7 days. Dash board updated daily.
True, it may be early- no mission accomplished yet from me- labor day weekend will be a huge test (kids off from classes for 3 days - more time to party). But I am impressed by Broads organization and keeping their commitment when many other labs did not and it’s not too early to say they kept their promises and came through:
"Just after 9 p.m. Sunday night, it hit a major milestone: 1 million tests processed. Broad officials say the institute — which normally focuses on genomic research to understand human diseases — is now performing one out of every 20 coronavirus tests done in the United States.
Along with tests from colleges, it has been working with nursing homes, homeless shelters, local hot spots and more, at a clip of more than 40,000 tests per day after a recent ramp-up. It returns results on most tests within 24 hours."
that’s interesting I’ll have to check it out. I wonder why Purdue isn’t seeing spike but places like UIUC and IU are. They are both testing a lot too. UIUC is testing 10,000 a week. 10% of Purdue is about 4,000 tests per week and that’s a pretty big number too.
I hope someone out there is planning to do a quick analysis of plans in Dec!
That was just current positive news not a prognostication. I am not scientist and not capable of prognosticating. Like most if not all parents on here.
That is all. Just passing on a bit of news.
UIUC is attempting to test 15K-20K per day, but aren’t there yet, they are around 10K/day on average rn.
UIUC’s 7 day positivity rate is 1.43% on about 75K tests as of Sept 3 (why no updates since then?).
Purdue’s 7 day positivity rate is 2.43% on 5,433 tests as of Sept 4.
IU’s dashboard is outdated and hard to interpret, so I will ignore that one.
When comparing testing data for various colleges, it might be worth considering that different tests may not be comparable, in part due to differences in cycle thresholds. See e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html
So Purdue’s rate is higher but trending down so that’s good news?
And UIUC is lower but shut down class for the next two weeks AND told kids to stay inside except for essentials.
Each school is judging it’s own rate and making decisions based on that. To one school, x-positivity rate is fine and students should keep on keeping on. At others, they hit that same rate and class goes remote.
Bowdoin has been clear (and I think other NESCACs too) on exactly how many kids need to test positive for them to move to more restrictions. If they get to ten kids positive at the same time, more restrictions kick in. That’s just .016 of the students on campus. At least, everyone knows the deal upfront.
My son’s school, as a result of shortened fall semester, has classes on Saturdays, and for Labor Day weekend, not only did they have classes this past Saturday, but they are also not observing today as a holiday so classes all day today. He is not, however, at a big party school. I do agree that Labor Day weekend will be just another excuse for parties at a lot of campuses.
It is interesting to see how schools are approaching things differently. The bad thing is that some schools aren’t transparent with all the data, and the implications/consequences of more, or fewer, cases.
IMO 5K tests in one week at Purdue isn’t enough, and that 7 day positivity rate is trending down just a bit. With such a large community, they may be missing cases.
Maybe Mitch should do what UIUC did…develop a saliva test via bridge study to the Yale saliva test EUA. I think Purdue has a CLIA lab on site like UIUC, so that would allow them to do more tests than their current process.
Saliva test is being used at Purdue and they have a more rapid test being fast tracked with the FDA. They are processing on campus.
No Labor Day off at Purdue either.
All reports are mask compliance and social distancing is very high.
I’m satisfied with what they are doing so far and honestly thrilled for my D that she is back at school.
Do you know why they aren’t testing more then? 5K per week just seems too low.
I was a Broad Institute skeptic, and happy to say I was wrong. They’re doing what they said they’d do.