Source: Radford University. Data are for the week ending 9/6/2020.
The newspapers will surely tell you when any local college has an outbreak of COVID-19. But they aren’t very good at telling you when a college seems to be getting that outbreak under control. So I thought I’d do a quick update on Radford University.
Radford University reported 64 new cases for the week ending September 7, 2020. That’s about a third the rate of new cases that they had in the prior week, and works out to about 115 cases / 100,000 persons/ day. Still high, but a lot better than it was.
The Commonwealth of Virginia still reports no new hospitalizations for COVID-19 for Radford City residents. That’s a pretty good indication that none of those infected students has been hospitalized.
The Commonwealth also reported just 14 new cases from 9/6/2020 to 9/9/2020 in the City of Radford. So, presumably, the rate of new infections within Radford University has remained low.
I think the lesson here is that an outbreak on a college campus does not necessarily translate to “game over” for the school year. Most remarkably, Radford University seems to have gotten this under control simply by stopping students from being irresponsible with respect to large parties. At least, that’s how I read the last three messages from the Radford administration.
I found this part of one recent message to be well worth quoting (emphasis mine):
“… an overwhelming majority of positive cases was attributed to students attending two unrecognized fraternity parties and one large gathering, all of which occurred off campus. Students following public health measures and engaging in on-campus activities, such as attending in-person classes while wearing face coverings and exercising physical distancing, have very minimal exposure to COVID-19.”
