One New COVID-19 Case at LHU; President Warns of Large Gatherings

LOCK HAVEN, PA – Lock Haven University President Robert Pignatello, in a social media posting, said the school has learned of off-campus large student indoor gatherings, what he called “a recipe for trouble” as the school tries to control the number of COVID-19 cases at the start of the new school year.

He said these events have been held indoors, in close quarters, over long periods, with no mask-wearing and no social distancing. Pignatello said these occurrences can cause the virus to spread quickly as a person can get infected and never know it. Failure to keep the case number low will force LHU to shut down and send students home, he said.

The president’s plea came as the Friday LHU dashboard shows 716 tests administered with five positive results and 711 negative results for a positivity rate of 0.7 percent. Pignatello termed the university’s low number of cases to date, as the first week of classes comes to an end, “good, but not good enough.”

A positivity rate of 5.0 percent is recognized as the benchmark for high risk of community spread.

The LHU dashboard can be seen at http://www.lockhaven.edu/Covid19Dashboard/ and is updated daily at 9 a.m.