USC case numbers down, but fewer tests obscure data
The University of South Carolina has released the latest number of coronavirus cases on campus.
On campus, there are 654 active cases, a decrease since Friday, when USC had 1,443 cases. Of those, 640 are students and 14 are faculty or staff.
While that number appears to show progress, USC has conducted only a quarter of the testing it did before releasing Friday’s numbers.
Between Friday and Monday, USC conducted 504 coronavirus tests, compared to last Tuesday through Thursday, when the school conducted 1,916 tests, according to the school’s coronavirus website.
Between Friday and Monday, there was a 19.1% positivity rate compared to 17.4% from last Tuesday through Thursday.
Testing rates have dropped off because USC was unable to conduct saliva testing after a “key lab staffer” became ill, according to a previous article from The State.
USC has still been conducting nasal swab tests.
“The decline in active cases represents more students recovering, which is good news,” USC President Robert Caslen said in a statement. “Our foremost consideration remains our students’ health and well-being. We do anticipate additional cases in coming days as we ramp up testing capacity and see the potential effects of the long Labor Day weekend.”
One of USC’s key weapons for tracking the spread of coronavirus has been on-demand saliva testing, which was, in part, developed by the school’s College of Pharmacy. USC is able to process more than 1,000 saliva tests per day and get results in less than a day.
However, USC was deprived of that tool for several days after the staffer’s illness forced the saliva testing to temporarily stop, according to a previous article from The State. Amid the halted testing, USC had encouraged students, faculty and staff to seek off-campus COVID 19 tests — something that has an undetermined effect on the campus’ numbers.
USC resumed saliva testing Tuesday, but was only able to process roughly 200 tests because the school is still understaffed in its testing lab. It is borrowing staff from Nephron Pharmaceuticals and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
USC’s quarantine capacity is 66% full, according to USC’s online dashboard.
As case numbers have increased — and as USC President Robert Caslen has warned of an increase in cases following Labor Day weekend — USC rented 132 hotel rooms at Springhill Suites to quarantine students.
The campus alert level is still listed as “low.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 5:40 PM.