Campus has been closed for almost 4 months. Classes, meetings, union bargaining, everything is online. Sorry, I mean virtual. Everything is closed, even Taylors.
Well, not everything. Uncle Phil’s unpaid Duck football players have been back on campus for a few weeks, for “voluntary” workouts and practices. And no one wants to know what’s going on at the frats and sororities. Apparently a lot of partying. Shocking.
Here’s the latest data. Extrapolating this exponential trend, by the time classes start in October every surviving member of the UO community will have had at least 3 cases of COVID-19:
July 1, 2020: Nine positive tests. Nine University of Oregon students are determined to be positive for COVID-19 in Eugene.
June 29, 2020: Three positive tests. Three University of Oregon students tested positive for COVID-19 in Eugene.
June 26, 2020: Five positive tests. Five University of Oregon students tested positive for COVID-19 on June 26 in Eugene. The presumptive positive case reported on June 22 is now a confirmed positive.
June 22, 2020: Three positive tests. One presumptive positive. Three UO students tested positive for COVID-19 in Eugene. One additional student is a presumptive positive. They are all recovering in isolation. Public health officials are conducting contact tracing and monitoring for individuals associated with these cases.
June 12, 2020: One positive test. One UO student tested positive for COVID-19 in Eugene. They are recovering in isolation. Public health officials are conducting contact tracing and monitoring for individuals associated with this positive case. This individual had minimal contact with the campus community.
I find it interesting that while all of the students and employees of this university are required to wear face masks on campus, that the hordes of skateboarders are not. I could take a walk on campus this afternoon and film 20 skateboarders without mask. Our UOPD force must be really busy this summer term!
As in most places, and as makes sense, face coverings are only required inside buildings: https://safety.uoregon.edu/uo-face-covering-regulations
The skateboarders are fine.
At the UO, that is not entirely true. From the document to which you so kindly linked:
This was written in in case they get to play sportsball, and want to have a bunch of people in an outdoor setting when physical distancing expectations cannot be met, watching the game.
Notice the age distribution at https://www.lanecountyor.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=3585881&pageId=16610736
Used to be the 41-50 range that had the highest number of cases; now it’s 21-30.
From KLCC: “From three college-aged gatherings reported, 42 people are now sick with COVID-19. Public Health’s Jason Davis said contact tracers “are feeling the strain” since each case has an average of 28 contacts and about half of them will be infected too.”
https://www.klcc.org/post/lane-county-contact-tracers-feeling-strained-covid-cases-double-weekly
From Inside Higher Ed 6 July 2020:
“The University of Southern California announced last week that undergraduate students will take all or most of their courses online, reversing course from earlier plans to invite undergraduates back to campus for an in-person fall semester. In announcing the decision, USC administrators cited ‘an alarming spike in coronavirus cases [in Los Angeles], making it clear we need to dramatically reduce our on-campus density and all indoor activities for the fall semester.'”
link here: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/07/06/coronavirus-roundup-surge-cases-forces-universities-change-their-fall-plans