ALLENDALE, Mich. — Grand Valley State University updated its COVID-19 Dashboard Tuesday, showing it's on moderate alert after reporting 394 current, active COVID-19 cases among the campus community.
According to the university's data dashboard, two staff members and one faculty member have tested positive for the virus, as well as 35 on-campus students.
"We have designed the GVSU testing program where we’re doing random, high-risk, and targeted testing among our community," said Jean Nagelkerk, Vice Provost for Health at GVSU. "So we’re actually looking for the virus."
There are 212 near-campus student cases. GVSU classifies near-campus students as those living within a mile of either the Allendale or Grand Rapids locations. The university reported 144 cases in other students, including students who live farther than a mile from campus or whose location was not determined.
"It’s probably been high around here, because there’s not parties on campus," said GVSU student Allie Fitzgerald about off-campus apartments, "but there are more get-togethers off campus. That’s probably what’s happening."
GVSU students returned to class on Monday, Aug. 31.
Currently, 1.4 percent of the university has tested positive. There is an average of 45.3 new cases of the virus each day.
"Because we’re starting to test, we’re going to identify those asymptotic cases that individuals would not know that they were exposed or had the virus," said Nagelkerk, " So, I think our initial numbers will be what we brought to the campus through our every day lives."
Grand Valley has done 2,843 tests since August 21. 95 of those have returned positive
All students, faculty, and staff are expected to complete a daily COVID-19 risk self-assessment, including on weekends.
The university said it will continue the testing of select campus populations, as well as randomized testing.
The rise in cases on college campuses has had a significant impact on Ottawa County's total cases as well.
"The recent spike in cases in Ottawa county are mostly affiliated with colleges and universities. And that is expected," said Kristina Wieghmink with the Ottawa County Health Department, "When people congregate more, being in close proximity, whether in class off campus living, socializing, and more testing is being conducted, we’ll see that increase in positive cases."
Wieghmink said there is not data to support a spike due to K-12 schools in the county, as it is with universities. Overall, positivity rates in Ottawa County are relatively low, she said. Over the past few weeks, it has been less than 2 percent, and hospitalization rate has slowed.
"Although more cases are being detected around colleges and universities, there’s still risk of potential exposure to COVID-19 almost everywhere," said Wieghmink. "So people need to be diligent."
More information on testing can be found on the GVSU COVID-19 Data Dashboard.
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