WVU Faculty and Staff walk up or drive thru Covid testing facilities at the WVU Coliseum parking lot made available to the WVU employee community, July 20, 2020. (WVU Photo/Greg Ellis)
West Virginia University has completed baseline COVID-19 testing as part of its Return to Campus plan launched this summer.
A total of 26,726 tests were collected from students and employees across the WVU System from July 20-Aug. 22:
- Morgantown: 24,284
- Keyser: 1,046
- Beckley: 1,396
As anticipated, the number of positive test results rose on the Morgantown campus as testing volume increased over the last week to ten days. However, the total cumulative percent positive remains low at 0.64%.
"As we closed out the initial wave of testing that began on July 20, the results have shown a positivity rate under one percent overall," Dr. Jeffrey Coben, associate vice president of health affairs and dean of the School of Public Health, said. "From a public health perspective, this has been a successful effort as we have been able to quickly identify and isolate positive individuals as they come to campus. Make-up testing has begun, and we are finalizing plans for further testing that will occur on campus throughout the fall semester."
The ongoing surveillance testing is anticipated to average 1,500 per week in Morgantown. Surveillance testing at WVU Institute of Technology in Beckley and WVU Potomac State College in Keyser will also continue through the semester.
WVU’s public-facing COVID-19 testing dashboard will continue to be updated Monday-Friday by 11 a.m. and includes information regarding students and employees broken out by campus (Morgantown, Beckley and Keyser). All positive results are sent directly to the state.
Updates are also provided by the University on WVU Safety social media accounts.
Additionally, the University will share trends and other COVID-19 related updates with the public each week or as necessary via WVUToday.
The dashboard should not be used to monitor individual test results. WVU students, faculty and staff should follow the Return to Campus guidelines to access test results.
Additional information and COVID-19 updates are available at WVU’s Return to Campus website.
-WVU-
ak/08/24/20
CONTACT: April Kaull, Executive Director of Communications
University Relations
304-212-8710; akaull@mail.wvu.edu
Call 1-855-WVU-NEWS for the latest West Virginia University news and information from WVUToday.
Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.