ASU revamps coronavirus reporting to include cumulative, cleared cases
Sep 10, 2020, 4:45 AM | Updated: 5:49 am
PHOENIX — Arizona State University announced Wednesday it will report the number of students who have contracted COVID-19 as well as how many have been cleared of the virus.
ASU President Michael Crow said that the total number of positives isn’t entirely helpful when it comes to understanding the spread of the virus.
“We’re very concerned that the message being sent out to the public is that everyone that’s ever tested positive is positive,” Crow told reporters in a webinar on Wednesday.
Crow said the number of cleared positives will paint a better picture of the viral spread on campus and help formerly infected students who have recovered return to normalcy.
“If they have been medically released to return to normal engagement with the university, and they’re no longer socially isolated, that allows us to know who has been on that list and who hasn’t been on that list,” he said.
As of Wednesday, Arizona State has had 1,305 students and 25 staff members test positive for COVID-19 since Aug. 1. The dashboard also showed 610 students and 138 staff members who previously tested positive have been cleared for release.
Crow added most students get sick off-campus. Only five have been hospitalized for COVID-19, but none this summer.
In the meantime, the school’s health app continues to measure students’ symptoms and travels on campus.
“We think the health app and the testing are here to stay. For how long? Forever,” Crow said. “We don’t see an environment where this disease is not something that we’re trying to manage.”
COVID-19 management for ASU also includes reduced populations in ASU student residences, so infected students have places to isolate.
ASU’s Biodesign Institute Executive Director Dr. Joshua LaBaer said estimates for a coronavirus vaccine within a year “extraordinarily aggressive.”
“There’s no guarantee,” LaBaer said. “We don’t have any successful vaccines for any of the other coronaviruses.
“Now, it’s certainly fair to say that no one has tried as intensively for those as they are trying for this one, but there are plenty of viruses that don’t easily induce an immune response or a lasting immune response.”
LaBaer pointed to the common cold as an example.
Crow said the community still must manage and prevent ordinary influenza, which there is a vaccine for that doesn’t always work.
“We are intensifying our efforts to enhance our management of the virus, operating completely under the assumption that managing the virus will be essential for the foreseeable future,” Crow said.
Crow also suggested ASU may already live in its new normal, including “Zooming in and Zooming out of classrooms,” as he put it, explaining that remote learning will continue past the pandemic.