Virginia Tech will begin more frequent testing of students and employees at higher risk of contracting the virus that causes COVID-19, the university announced Wednesday.
Tech President Tim Sands made the announcement on the same day the university reached 1,000 positive cases of the coronavirus since early August.
“Current testing data indicate the rate of new infections is moving in the right direction,” Sands said in a statement. “The next phase of our testing plan is focused on the health and safety of individuals in high-contact situations. These employees and students, due to the nature of their jobs or academic responsibilities, have a higher level of interaction with the public or each other and may at times be unable to maintain the recommended physical distancing.”
Starting Monday, such “high-contact” individuals on the Blacksburg campus will be tested. The goal is to test all of these roughly 1,100 people every two or three weeks, the president said.
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“These tests must be mandatory in order to effectively protect employees and students whose responsibilities involve a greater opportunity to have contact with other individuals,” Sands wrote.
The approximately 1,100 high-contact individuals fall into various risk categories, from “very high” to “medium,” according to a university testing plan, the majority falling into the medium category.
Those considered at “very high” risk of exposure to known or suspected sources of the coronavirus include health center and athletic medical staff. Other positions below that designation include counseling staff, campus police officers and some cleaning staff, among other jobs.
Tech established the guidelines based on risk levels from the state labor department, which say workers are at higher risk when physical distancing and personal protective equipment aren’t possible.
Tech’s COVID-19 dashboard updated on Wednesday showed that 984 students and 16 employees have tested positive since testing began Aug. 3.
Within the last seven days, 103 students and one employee tested positive.
The dashboard shows a seven-day average of 15 positive cases, compared to a high of 53.7 for Sept. 4. That data includes Sundays, when no tests were conducted, and only recently has the university ramped up random testing for students.
In recent days, cases in Montgomery County and in Radford have tapered off after spikes in September from an influx of students, according to state data and data reported by both universities.
Tech’s dashboard on Tuesday also added a new metric of estimated recoveries from the coronavirus.
As of Wednesday, 777 people were listed as recovered from their illness. The number “assumes recovery not less than 14 days after testing positive,” the time period after which studies suggest the virus can no longer infect others.
The dashboard notes, “Not all cases necessarily progress in this manner, specific recoveries are known to patients and professionals.”
The university recently began mandatory random testing of undergraduates in Blacksburg. Tech increased its student testing capacity to 2,000 tests weekly, a portion of which it reserved for the random tests.
“An ongoing surveillance program will capture students (on and off campus) as well as high contact individuals that have an increased risk of exposure due to their job or academic responsibilities,” says a university testing plan. “While a rigorous surveillance program will not prevent outbreaks from happening, it is another mechanism for monitoring the health of the Virginia Tech campus and providing the metrics to inform operational decisions.”