By Neil Doyle
BLOOMINGTON – A group of students from Illinois Wesleyan University have tested positive for coronavirus.
According to a news release Wednesday, 10 students who live off-campus tested positive after initially testing negative when they arrived to campus. The university said this outbreak is related to off-campus social gatherings where the use of masks and physical distancing did not occur.
“Any gathering carries with it risk, but the large parties and bar hopping all carry an especially large risk and an exponential increase in problems,” said Karla Carney-Hall, Dean of Students. “We’ve encouraged and reminded students that we are vulnerable as a campus community and we need them to be part of the solution and make good decisions.”
Some of the students who tested positive have reported COVID-19 symptoms, while many are asymptomatic. All students who tested positive are either returning home, staying in off-campus housing to isolate, or are isolating off campus in university-provided quarantine space, according to IWU.
Contact tracing is being conducted by the McLean County Health Department, while IWU’s Arnold Health Service assisted with limited early identification and notification of potential “close contacts.”
“We know that there will be these isolated outbreaks where things are going to pop up,” said Carney-Hall. ” We hope through early identification and isolation like we’ve done in this case that we can be successful in isolating that and keep the remainder of the community in a healthy place,” Carney-Hall said.
Universal Testing Update:
In preparation for the fall semester, all IWU students were required to undergo COVID-19 testing upon arrival to campus. The university said of the nearly 1,450 baseline tests administered to students over the past two weeks, nine students tested positive for a positivity rate of less than 1% (0.62%).
Combined with those who have tested positive after arriving on campus, the student positivity rate is 1.3%.
Ongoing surveillance testing will also be conducted on campus throughout the fall semester. Each week, 5-10% of the entire student body will be retested to monitor the potential emergence of positive COVID-19 cases on campus.
IWU students are taking a mix of in-person, online and hybrid courses.
Neil Doyle can be reached at [email protected]
