LHU President Says Vigilance Needed as School Reports First COVID Cases

RecordStaffAugust 26, 2020Last Updated: August 26, 2020

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LOCK HAVEN, PA – Lock Haven University has announced its first positive tests for COVID-19 since a limited amount of students returned for the new school year in recent days, this as classes resumed on Monday of this week.

According to the school’s new COVID-19 dashboard, three positive tests have shown up through Wednesday.

School President Robert Pignatello said another round of testing will follow next week as he called for continued surveillance of the virus:

“Our first round of asymptomatic testing has now concluded. 706 tests were administered for students living on or off campus and taking face-to-face courses along with employees who chose to be tested. Results have been returned for 690 tests. We have three results that were returned positive and the remainder negative. This is a positivity rate of 00.43%. As mentioned previously, a positivity rate of 5.0 % is the benchmark for high risk of community spread. So, this far we are pleased with these results. We thank all those who came forward to be tested.

But we, each of us, must maintain our vigilance and exercise sound practices and behavior on and off campus in order for us to continue to prevent the spread of COVID in our community. Therefore, we will continue our surveillance of the virus through additional testing of up to 20% of the populations we first tested next week. And then, another time when everyone returns from the Labor Day weekend. I am convinced that our testing program is helping to keep us safer. I thank our COVID Coordinator Dr. Beth McMahon and the COVID Institutional Response team for their diligence in managing our testing and contact tracing protocols and for keeping us so well informed.”

Most classes this semester are being conducted online. A university spokesman said 283 students are being housed on campus but a total enrollment figure is not yet available.

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