Cal Poly is improving COVID-19 testing — but changes are months away
Coronavirus cases from Cal Poly students in San Luis Obispo are skyrocketing, and the university’s president said COVID-19 testing improvements are on the way.
Cal Poly added more than 200 cases of COVID-19 since Nov. 3, bringing the university’s total positive cases since March to 488 as of Tuesday.
The recent outbreak, the university said, is tied mostly to several campus sorority chapters and student residents in the on-campus Poly Canyon Village apartments holding unapproved events that do not comply with health and safety guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Dr. Penny Borenstein, San Luis Obispo County public health officer, told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that coronavirus spread among members of the Cal Poly community has contributed significantly to a recent spike in local cases.
At least four members of the Mustangs football team have tested positive since last week, according to a source at the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department.
Since Nov. 5, the university said it conducted additional testing for two sorority chapters.
“Increased testing will focus on the student populations known to have engaged in higher-risk activities,” Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong wrote in a campus-wide communication sent Nov. 5.
In a Tuesday update, Armstrong said the university will soon have even broader testing capabilities — performing about 4,000 tests per day — as it switches from nasal swabs to a saliva sample testing method.
According to Armstrong, that increase in testing capability will come in mid-January — after students have returned to classes and moved back into on-campus housing for the university’s winter term, which begins on Jan. 4.
Cal Poly currently has about 4,500 students living on campus, with more coming on campus to take a total of 560 in-person classes offered this fall. Armstrong said the increased testing capabilities will give the university the ability to test all on-campus students a minimum of once per week, with some tested twice per week, in the first two weeks of the winter term.
After those first two weeks, students “will be tested regularly as guided by current conditions and expert advice,” Armstrong said in Tuesday’s campus-wide communication.
Dr. Penny Borenstein, San Luis Obispo County public health officer, told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that coronavirus spread among members of the Cal Poly community has contributed significantly to a recent spike in local cases.
The university said it will try to prevent students from bringing the coronavirus to campus after the holidays through more testing. Students living on campus or attending in-person classes will need to present proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three to seven days of their first arrival on campus, according to Armstrong.
The university will also have “free, frequent tests” available to faculty and staff.
In addition to the saliva-based tests, the university also expects to begin testing the sewage coming from student on-campus residence halls in January, according to Armstrong.
Both testing methods, Armstrong said, have been developed in-house.
“I am extremely proud to say that both our saliva-based testing and wastewater screening capabilities have been developed by our own faculty, staff and students,” Armstrong said. “Their innovative work has Cal Poly on the cutting edge, even during the extraordinary challenge of the pandemic.”
How Cal Poly tests students for coronavirus
As of Nov. 10, the university’s lab has performed an average of 222 coronavirus tests every weekday over the past four weeks.
In addition, an average of 413 tests per day were conducted over the same time period through an outside contractor, Avellino Labs, which began screening students on Oct. 3.
That means the university has been testing about 3,000 to 4,000 students every week for the past four weeks.
Regular, widespread COVID-19 testing is important because it allows universities to understand the full scope of the virus’s spread within their communities, according to health experts.
When a student on campus tests positive, they are taken to an isolation room on campus. Additionally, students may be ordered to quarantine.
Contact tracing, and enforcement of quarantine and isolation measures, are done in consultation with the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department, according to the university.
As of Tuesday, 95 Cal Poly students were isolating on campus, and a total of 880 students were quarantining.
“It is my firm belief that this additional testing capacity, combined with our current efforts, will enable us to minimize and contain the spread of coronavirus during winter quarter,” Armstrong wrote in Tuesday’s campus-wide communication. “Yet, testing won’t beat the virus by itself. Each of us has to keep following the basic precautions that have become so familiar: wear a mask; physically distance; avoid gathering in groups; obey isolation and quarantine rules.
“We know how to slow the spread of coronavirus. Now let’s all commit to doing what it takes for as long as it takes.”
