USC coronavirus case numbers continue to fall below 200

The University of South Carolina is reporting fewer than 200 active cases among students and faculty on campus.

As of Tuesday, USC is reporting 196 total cases on campus. 193 of those are students and 3 are faculty or staff members.

Though USC is not running as many tests as a few weeks ago when cases were higher, the school has more than 80% of its quarantine capacity available, according to the school’s online dashboard.

The percent positive rate for the most recent testing period is 7.4%, which is less than the average (from Aug. 1 to Sept. 14) percent positive of 11.5%.

The campus alter level, a composite score of case numbers, testing and quarantine capacity, coronavirus’ impact on day-to-day operations and more, describes the coronavirus risk on USC’s campus as “low.”

Since school began Aug. 20, the peak number of reported active cases has been 1,461 on Sept. 3, according to USC’s online dashboard.

The lion’s share of those cases have been students. Between Aug. 1 and Sept. 10, 98.4% of all COVID-19 cases on USC’s campus has been students, according to the dashboard.

Around the time the peak was reported, testing declined rapidly because USC said a lab staffer key to saliva testing became sick, which caused saliva testing to fall to one-sixth of its previous capacity.

Naturally, fewer tests showed fewer positives, but the percent positive rates were also down shortly after the spike.

Since USC resumed saliva testing at a limited capacity Tuesday, Sept. 9 the number of new cases by day has increased every day, according to the online dashboard.

While cases rose early in the year, USC officials remained publicly confident in the school’s ability to test, quarantine and do contact tracing, according to a Sept. 1 article from The State.

Throughout the school year, videos and photos have surfaced showing large crowds of people gathered in student apartment complexes or off-campus areas popular with students. USC President Robert Caslen has said classrooms and on-campus buildings are safe, but off-campus gatherings are spreading coronavirus.

USC has responded by quarantining student housing and punishing students and organizations that violate COVID-19 safety rules.