Education

Illinois State University Surpasses 1,000 COVID Cases, No Current Plans To Close Dorms

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Illinois State University announced Tuesday that it does not plan to close campus dorms though the school has surpassed 1,000 positive COVID-19 cases.

“Right now, more than 80 percent of those testing positive are living off campus and of those students living in on-campus housing, only 2 percent are currently in on-campus isolation,” Vice President for Student Affairs Levester Johnson said, according to a school statement.

“The residence halls have implemented a variety of measures to further support the health and wellness of our on-campus residents,” Johnson continued. “Living in the time of COVID-19 means students’ lives can change in an instant, and we want to support them and will continue to be as flexible as possible.”

The university’s COVID-19 dashboard reported 1,110 cases total as of Wednesday afternoon.

Faculty and staff are not factored into the dashboard’s figures, Illinois State University Director of the Media Relations Office Eric. R. Jome told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The test results that are reported on the dashboard come from testing of undergraduate and graduate students (those living on-campus and off). Faculty and staff members are able to test at a community-based testing center in Bloomington,” Jome told the DCNF.

The university said in the Tuesday statement that it is performing more widespread testing than all other state universities in Illinois, except for the University of Illinois.

NORMAL, Ill. (WAND) – Illinois State University is planning to adopt a type of COVID-19 testing developed by the University of Illinois. https://t.co/IwEB6beBmE

— WAND TV News (@wandtvnews) August 31, 2020

“As our surveillance testing ramps up, we expect that expanded testing will result in a lower positivity rate,” chemistry professor and the university’s COVID testing coordinator John Baur said in the statement. “University leadership is monitoring the situation closely.”

Other preventative measures implemented include prohibiting overnight or off-campus guests at the dorms, according to the statement.

Although colleges and universities are taking precautions in order to prevent spreading the coronavirus, institutions across the U.S. have reported more than 20,000 cases since late July, according to a New York Times survey.