COVID-19 cases at Cal Poly have tripled since June. Here’s what we know
COVID-19 cases involving Cal Poly students, faculty and staff have more than tripled since June.
The San Luis Obispo university now has 18 confirmed cases of coronavirus, compared to five at the end of June, according to Cal Poly’s website. Of those patients, 11 are located in San Luis Obispo County.
The university is releasing little information about these cases due to privacy reasons, Cynthia Lambert, a communications specialist at Cal Poly, wrote in an email.
Cal Poly has not specified how many students have gotten the virus, or how many faculty or staff members, Lambert wrote.
The sharp uptick in COVID-19 cases could be due to several factors, Dr. Aaron Baker, Cal Poly’s medical director, wrote via email, including “increased transmission in the community (both in San Luis Obispo as well as the locations of others not in the San Luis Obispo area), increased awareness of the risk of illness and individuals seeking testing and increased availability of testing.”
Cal Poly’s fall term is set to begin Sept. 14 with mostly virtual learning, Lambert said, with a select number of in-person courses, mostly labs and activities.
Cal Poly originally posted on its website that it plans to provide definitive information on the fall quarter by Aug. 26, at least two weeks before the earliest date students can return to campus. The school has since removed that information from its coronavirus website.
“College leaders around the country continue to plan for ways to minimize the number of cases — but it is realistic to expect that there will be cases,” Baker wrote. “We have to be prepared.”
The university has performed 267 tests with its Campus Health and Wellbeing equipment, Baker wrote.
Cal Poly is following San Luis Obispo County guidelines on COVID-19 testing, as well as testing symptomatic students and those with close contact to individuals with COVID-19 when appropriate, he added.
Cal Poly does not have information that identifies any of the 18 people who tested positive for coronavirus as requiring hospital admission, Baker wrote. None of those individuals live on campus, according to Baker.
On Wednesday, San Luis Obispo County added 21 cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of people who have locally tested positive for COVID-19 to 1,710, according to EmergencySLO.org.
The county also reported that a 12th county resident has died due to COVID-19.
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that Cal Poly will begin the fall term with mostly virtual learning.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 9:54 AM.
